<b>In the third month (Exod. 19:11).</b> May it please our master to instruct us: May one cure a pain in his mouth on the Sabbath? Thus do our masters teach us: One who has a pain in his mouth may take medicine for it on the Sabbath because his soul is endangered, and whenever the soul is endangered the Sabbath is set aside. The law states: One may profane a Sabbath in order to observe many Sabbaths.<sup class="footnote-marker">11</sup><i class="footnote">Saving a life takes precedence over the Sabbath so that other Sabbaths might be observed. See Yoma 85b, Shabbat 151b and section 16, below.</i> Whence do we know this? R. Eliezer said: This may be logically deduced from the fact that if circumcision, which concerns only one of man’s limbs, sets aside the Sabbath, then surely it is right that a serious illness, which threatens a man’s entire body, should set aside the Sabbath. R. Johanan stated: Every ailment of the lip and the inside of the mouth sets aside the Sabbath and may be healed on the Sabbath.
The Holy One, blessed be He, said that there is no ailment that does not have its cure; and the cure and drug for every ailment have been predetermined. If you desire your body to be free of pain, devote yourself to the Torah, for it is a healing balm to the entire body. We know that it is a cure for the head, since it is said: <i>She will give to thy head a chaplet of grace</i> (Prov. 1:9); for the heart, as it is said: <i>Write them upon the table of thy heart</i> (ibid. 3:3); for the neck, since it is written: <i>And chains about thy neck</i> (ibid. 1:9); for the hands, as it is said: <i>And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thy hand</i> (Exod. 13:9); for the navel, for it is written: It shall be health to thy navel (Prov. 3:8); and for all of the bones of the body, as it is said: <i>And marrow to thy bones</i> (ibid.). R. Joshua the son of Levi declared: The Holy One, blessed be He, demonstrated this when he gave the law. Prior to the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, some of them had been injured as a result of the hazardous labor they performed with mud and straw. Stones from the buildings had fallen upon them, breaking their hands and mutilating their legs. The Holy One, blessed be He, said: It is not right that I should give my law to imperfect men. What did He do then? He instructed His angels to descend and heal them. Whence do we know that none of them were blind? It is said: <i>And all the people perceived the thunderings</i> (Exod. 20:15). How do we know that there were no deaf ones among them? It is written: <i>We will hear</i> (ibid. 24:7). Whence do we know that there were none among them without hands? They said: <i>We will do</i> (ibid.). How do we know that there were none with crippled legs among them? It is written: <i>And they stood at the nether part of the mount</i> (ibid. 19:17). R. Judah the son of Simon said: Because they were as new, the Holy One, blessed be He, called that month “master of renewal.”<sup class="footnote-marker">12</sup><i class="footnote">The giving of the Law, which took place in the third month renewed Israel both spiritually and physically.</i> Whence do we know this? We know it from what is written about this matter in the section In the third month.