For the source text click/tap here: Avodah Zarah 55
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A man named Zunim asked Rabbi Akiva to explain why it is that we sometimes find that a person who goes to a house of idol worship becomes healed from illnesses and broken limbs.
Rabbi Akiva answered that an illness is a messenger sent by the heavens to afflict a person, and the illness is charged with a detailed mission. The illness is administered an oath as to precisely when it can begin to afflict its victim.
It is also charged with instructions regarding the day and hour it must depart from him, as a result of which doctor, and through which medicine.
Rabbi Akiva explained that the person who is sick will have the illness leave his body under the prescribed conditions, wherever he might be at that time. The truth is that the illness protests and prefers not to leave a body if the sick person happens to be in a house of idolatry at that moment, so that no credit be given to the idol.
We explore the parable of Rabbi Akiva and how it relates to his theology.