In the Mishnaic period or a bit earlier, medical care by physicians became general.” The discussion of anatomical details, numerous symptoms, and medical treatments in the Talmud and the later halakhic literature indicated that medical treatment and the intervention of the physician was normative. There are thousands of references scattered throughout the Talmudic and Midrashic literature, not to speak of the later responsa.'> The detailed discussions encouraged all Jews to make a maximum use of whatever medical techniques existed.
These discussions, of course, continued in the later halakhic literature up to the present day. Despite the large number of references, no tractate of the Talmud dealt exclusively with medicine or medical ethics. The earliest Jewish medical treatise is the Sefer Refuot by Asaph. This major work may date from the eighth century." Later, of course, there was a great deal of medical literature and a whole series of volumes by Maimonides along with references in his Mishneh Torah."
Although there were few basic changes in medical practice from the Greco-Roman period until the eighteenth century, the older medicine had to be rediscovered in the Islamic period. When medical practices changed, Judaism accepted the new ways with little or no discussion."
Why were changes in medical practice so readily accepted by the Jewish public? Theologically, although God was the ultimate healer , we felt that the covenant permitted us the freedom to seek medical treatment and even mandated it. The high status of the Jewish physicians was not due only to their skill, which was appreciated by the Gentile world as well, but because in many instances they combined rabbinic scholarship with medical knowledge. Maimonides is only the most illustrious example and the line of his predecessors can be traced to Theodos, Mar Samuel , R. Hiyyah and others of the second century. This unique combination of Jewish scholarship and medical knowledge provided authority to the physician. It placed the physician in a position of trust as well as religious leadership.
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