Why would a believing Jew – with complete faith in God –  need a doctor, since medical treatment directly interferes with God’s will? —True Believer

Those religious sects that oppose medical treatment accept the Torah teaching (Exodus 15:26): “For I am the Lord your Healer' literally. A doctor attempting to remove illness from someone G-d has afflicted is interfering with God's will. Not surprisingly, this view is also found in Jewish tradition.

Nevertheless, normative Judaism strongly advocates medical treatment, based on a clause in Exodus 21:19:  “…he shall surely cure him.”  In Talmud Bavli (Bava Kama 85a), this verse is understood as granting Divine permission for doctors to heal. Why do we need a Torah text to permit doctors to heal?  Rashi simply says that this permission dismisses any argument against human intervention; the Torah preemptively grants the right to do something that might be mistaken for a pagan or “heretical” practice. Another text in the Babyonian Talmud (Nedarim 41b) adds that not only is it permitted for a doctor to practice medicine – it is a mitzvah.

Still, it’s understandable that some may still ask why someone should turn for healing to a limited, mortal, fellow human being rather than to God, the Source of all healing.

The rabbis who composed the Midrashim offer a brilliant response:

Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Akiva were walking in the streets of Jerusalem accompanied by another person. A sick man met them, saying: “'My masters, tell me how I may be healed.” They told him: “Do thus and you will be healed.” He asked them: “Who afflicted me?” They said: “'The Holy One, Who is blessed.” The sick man responded: “You intrude in a realm which is not yours! God has afflicted and you heal! Aren’t you transgressing His will?”

 

They asked him: “What is your occupation?” He answered: 'I work the land –  here is a sickle in my hand!” They asked him: “Who created the orchard?” He answered: “The Holy One, Who is blessed.” Said they: “You, too,  interfere in a realm which is not yours. G-d created it but you cut away its fruit!” He said:  “Don’t you see the sickle in my hand? If I didn’t plow, sow, fertilize and weed, nothing would grow!” They said: “Doesn’t your work teach you the Scripture, which says, 'As for man, his days are like grass; like the grass of the field, he flourishes” (Psalms 103:15) – just as a tree without weeding, fertilizing, and plowing will not grow; even if it grows, without irrigation and fertilizing it will surely die. The same is true of the body. Drugs and medical procedures are the fertilizer, and the physician tills the soil.”

Moses Maimonides, who was rabbi, philosopher, and physician, says that no one would ever say that a hungry person who eats a piece of bread to relieve his hunger is not trusting in God. Similarly, a sick person who goes to a doctor and takes medicine does not betray his or her faith.

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