What did this book of cures consist of? Rashi explains that this book enabled people to cure any ailment instantaneously. Such a book needed to be hidden because illness also has its place in the Divine scheme of things. Ill health reminds people of their human frailty and turns their attention back to Hashem.

In his commentary on the Mishnah (Pesahim 4:10), Rambam offers two other interpretations. Either the book described healing based on witchcraft or the book inlcuded both poisons and antidotes and the problem was that people began to make extensive use of the posion sections. According to both of Rambam's views, the problem has nothing to do with humans getting in the way of the Divine plan.

Indeed, Rambam cites such an idea only to vociferously denounce it. He makes a strong analogy to human attempts to deal with hunger. Just as human effort to turn wheat in to bread does not violate any religious ideal, so too curing the sick is in no way religiously problematic. Not only does the human initiative not contradict a sense of dependence on the Divine, it enhances it. Rambam points out that just as we thank God when eating food, we can thank God for creating the cure developed by human hands.

Religious ideals should not inhibit human effort to alleviate human suffering. On the contrary, it should inspire such an effort. At the same time, that effort must be seen as part of the scheme of Divine providence.

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