From the Book of Kartana the Physician

248. “He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness.” Of course he later made all those shells in the desert and in the wilderness enslaved to Israel. The verses thus far have been written in that book of the physician called Kartana. Afterwards, he would write all the guarding that a wise physician should do for the patient in his sick bed, as it is the conduct of the physician to first write down before him the state in which he found the patient, and then prescribe the medicines.

So were those verses arranged here in that book: At first, the book mentions the verses, “found him in a desert,” the state that the patient is in, and then he would write down what follows from that verse, where it writes down all the guarding that a wise physician must do for the patient who is lying in his sick bed in the house of the king’s prisoners, who are ill because they cannot serve the Master of the world.

249. This is what was written there in the book: When a wise physician goes to a patient, he will find him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness, since the illnesses on him place him in the king’s prison, in a desert land in the wilderness. It should not be said that since the Creator commanded to capture him in prison, one should not exert with him to make him repent. After all, David said, “Happy is one who enlightens the poor.” That sick one who is lying in his sick bed is poor. If his friend is a wise physician, the Creator gives blessings to anyone who exerts with him.

250. That physician will find him in a desert land, lying in his sick bed, and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness, that the illnesses afflict him. What should he do? Encircle him, bring up reasons and come up with causes and reasons to deny him the things that harm him. He will draw out his blood and take out from him the bad blood.

“He will encircle him,” he will look and understand what caused the illness, and he will see that the illness does not spread, and he will mitigate it. Afterwards, he will keep him “as the apple of his eye,” he will be properly guarded by all those potions and by those cures he needs, so he does not make a mistake with them, for if he makes a mistake with even one thing and he dies, the Creator will regard that physician as though he shed blood and killed him.

251. Because the Creator wants that although that person is in the king’s prison and is incarcerated in prison, and cannot free himself, a person should exert for him and help him get out of prison.

Thus, the Creator determines the judgments of the people above, both to death and to uproot him from the root, he and his children, both to uproot him so he will have no children, and to punish him with his property and place him in prison. One who has been sentenced to a punishment of property, falls in his sick bed, and he is not healed until he gives all that he has been sentenced for. After he is punished with his money and has given all that he has been sentenced for, he is cured and comes out of prison. For this reason, we must exert for him, to give his punishment and get out of prison.

252. One who has been sentenced to be uprooted from the root is captured and placed in prison until he is uprooted from everything, until he and his children die. Sometimes, his organs or one of them is cut out, and by this, he is atoned for. Afterwards, he is taken out from prison. One who has been sentenced to death dies, and even if he gives any ransom and all the money in the world, he will not be saved.

253. This is why one needs a wise physician to labor on him. If he can give him the healing of the body, it is good. If not, he will give him healing for his soul and labor with the healing of the soul. That is the physician that the Creator labors over to bless him in this world and in the next world.

254. Rabbi Elazar said, “until now, I have not heard of this physician or of this book, except for once, when a merchant told me he had heard from his father that there was some physician in his days, that when he would look at a person in his sick bed, he would say, ‘This one is alive,’ and ‘This one is dead.’ They would say about him that he was a true righteous, fearful of sin, and anything that the patient could not afford and needed, he would buy and give of his own. They would say that there is none as wise as him in the world, and with his prayer, he would do more than with his hands. It seems to us that that was that physician.”

255. That merchant said, “Of course the book of that physician is in my possession, for I inherited it from my father’s father, and all the words in that book were based on the secrets of the Torah. I have found hidden secrets in it, and many words of healing that he said that one must not work with unless he is fearful of sin.”

256. The healings that are written there are from what Balaam used to do, when he would whisper whispers over the illness and would say with his mouth, and he would be healed immediately. They are all explained in that book, and he says, “This one is forbidden to use, and that one is permitted to use for those who are fearful of sin,” since there are many illnesses, he said, whose healing depends on the whisper of the mouth. Some of them are from the side of the serpent and some from the side of magic. All those that are forbidden to say in the mouth, and forbidden to do an action, he would say there. Until I found about certain illnesses that one should say this and excommunicate with a ban and a boycott over that sickness. This is a great wonder to us.

257. Rabbi Elazar said, “If we have that book, let us see what it says. I will give him a promise in order to show Rabbi Shimon, my father.” I had that book in my hand for twelve months, and I found in it high and honorable lights. When I came to those secrets that were from Balaam, I was surprised.

258. One day, I whispered in one place, and the letters were ascending and descending, until I saw in a dream, and he said to me, “Why are you entering a boundary that is not yours and which you do not need?” And I woke up. It was bad for me to part from the book because of the hidden secrets that were in it.

259. In the secrets of Balaam, I found some of those names of angels that Balak sent to him, but they were not properly organized. However, I found several kinds of healing in that book that were arranged according to the corrections of the Torah with its hidden secrets, and I saw that they were in Hassidut [piety/devoutness], and in prayers and litanies to the Creator.

Would He do healing with words of Torah or with the secrets of the Torah? No, because it is forbidden to do so. Rather, he would say the secrets of the Torah, and according to that secret, he would come out with such secrets of healing that I have never seen. I said, “Blessed is the Merciful One, who have made people wise with the wisdom of above.”

260. I took from those words of Balaam, and I saw in them that there was no one as wise as him in witchcraft in the world. I said, “Blessed is the Merciful One who canceled witchcraft from the world, so people would not be mistaken and veer off from fear of the Creator.