The Jews miraculously left Egypt and experienced the revelation of Hashem when the Yam Suf-the Reed Sea split to allow them safe passage and came crashing back down on the Egyptians who were in hot pursuit!
Hashem tell Moshe to reassure the Jews that, “If you will heed the voice of Hashem and keep the laws, all the ills that I visited upon Egypt, I will not place on you. For I am Hashem your healer.”
Upon closer observation of this verse, it seems to require clarification. If, as Hashem guarantees, none of those illnesses will be experienced by the Jews, Why is a Healer required? A strong healthy person requires no physician to heal him.
Although it would be unspeakable cruelty for someone to go over to his fellow man and stab him, there is one type of person who may do so without any fear of retribution. That person is a surgeon! It is self-evident that any wound inflicted by the surgeon is solely for the recipient’s benefit, to cure his condition.
Hashem was not promising that no Jew will ever be uncomfortable, in pain or experience a tragedy.
Rather, the message was that every experience that occurs to a person whether pleasant and enjoyable or otherwise, is solely for that person’s benefit. Sometimes it may be to prod him to repentance, or to atone for his sins, or for other unfathomable purposes that will not be understood until he enters the World of Truth.
This, then is the meaning of the phrase, “I will not place (illness) on you.” For if a person experiences an illness (G-d forbid) or some other travail, it is merely an indication that the Master Surgeon General understands that the person would benefit from a procedure!

By Rabbi Sharaga Thav
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