Hearken and You Will Be Given More, Torah as Healing

Another interpretation: "If you hearken" to the new, "you will hearken" to the old; but if your heart turns away, you will no longer hearken. From here they said: if a person has heard one commandment, they cause him to hear many commandments, as it is said, "if hearkening you will hearken"; if he has forgotten one commandment, they cause him to forget many commandments, as it is said, "if forgetting you will forget" (Deuteronomy 8:19). "To the voice of the LORD your God" (Exodus 15:26), these are the Ten Commandments, which were given mouth to mouth in ten voices. "And you will do what is right in His eyes," these are the praiseworthy aggadot that are heard pleasingly in the ears of every person. "And you will give ear to His commandments," these are the gezerot shavot [verbal analogies of law]. "And keep all His statutes," these are the halakhot. "All the disease that I put upon Egypt I will not put upon you. But if I do, I am the LORD your healer," these are the words of Rabbi Yehoshua. Rabbi Elazar of Modi'in says: "If you hearken," I might have heard this as optional; the teaching says "you will hearken," obligatory and not optional. "You will hearken," this is the general rule in which the whole Torah is included. "To the voice of the LORD your God" teaches that whoever hearkens to the voice of the Might, it is reckoned to him as though he stands and serves before the One who lives and endures forever. "And you will do what is right in His eyes," this is commerce; it teaches that whoever conducts business in good faith, the spirit of his fellow creatures is pleased with him, and Scripture reckons it to him as though he had fulfilled the whole Torah. "And you will give ear to His commandments," these are the halakhot. "And keep all His statutes," these are the laws of forbidden unions. "All the disease that I put upon Egypt I will not put upon you." And what does Scripture teach by saying, "for I am the LORD your healer"? Rather, the Omnipresent said to Israel: the words of Torah that I have given you are life for you, they are healing for you, as it is said, "for they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh" (Proverbs 4:22), and it says, "It shall be healing to your navel" and so forth (Proverbs 3:8). Rabbi Yitzhak says: if there is no sickness in them, why do they need healing? Rather, "all the disease that I put upon Egypt I will not put upon you" in this world, and if I do put it, "for I am the LORD your healer" in the world to come. Shimon ben Azzai says: "hearken," what does Scripture teach by saying "you will hearken"? From here they said: if a person wishes to hear, they cause him to hear at once; to forget, they cause him to forget at once. He used to say: if a person wished to hear for his own good, they cause him to hear even not for his own good; [to forget for his own good, they cause him to forget even not for his own good]; permission is granted, as it is said, "if it concerns scorners, He scorns them" (Proverbs 3:34). Others say, "if you surely take a pledge" (Exodus 22:25): if you have inflicted one injury, in the end they will inflict many injuries upon you. Rava said to Rabbah bar Mari: it is written, "all the disease that I put upon Egypt I will not put upon you," and since He does not put the disease, why is healing needed? He said to him: thus said Rabbi Yohanan, this verse expounds itself: if you hearken, I will not put it; and if you do not hearken, I will put it; and even so, "I am the LORD your healer."