When Miriam was stricken with leprosy (Numbers 12:13), Moses cried out to God on his sister’s behalf: “Please, God. Please heal her!” His brief prayer prefigured the “Mi She-Berach” – the formulaic petition for healing often included in congregational worship or said at an ailing individual’s bedside.
The Mi She-Berach has many functions and benefits. It serves as a prayerful request for Divine intervention and healing: it asks God to act. It provides a measure of comfort to those offering or requesting recitation of the prayer, by providing them a role in the ongoing care of the afflicted individual. It gives worthy expression to our capacity for empathy, and bespeaks our tradition’s emphasis on life, health, and healing.
It reassures the patient that friends and community are concerned. In a congregational setting, the Mi She-Berach represents a public service, notifying the community that there is someone in need of support, and, perhaps, a family burdened by the anxiety of a loved one’s illness: those hearing the prayer are given the opportunity to respond appropriately.
What role should prayer play in medicine? The Mi She-Berach reflects the enlightened and balanced approach to life articulated by Emil Fackenheim: “Jews pray as though everything depended on God, and work as though everything depended on man.”
When Miriam was stricken with leprosy (Numbers 12:13), Moses cried out to God on his sister’s behalf: “Please, God. Please heal her!” His brief prayer prefigured the “Mi She-Berach” – the formulaic petition for healing often included in congregational worship or said at an ailing individual’s bedside.