In this blessing, we acknowledge two types of illness—spiritual and physical. This is reflected in the two reasons we offer as our case for God to fulfill our request: 1) “because You are our praise,” and 2) “because You are the Divine King who is a committed and compassionate Healer.” Let’s take a closer look. The first part—“Heal us, YHVH, and we will be healed, save us and we will be saved because You are our praise”—refers to psychological and spiritual health. The continuation—“And bring complete healing to all of our wounds, because You are the Divine King who is a committed and compassionate Healer”—refers to physical health. Why do we ask for spiritual health before we ask for physical health? The Torah teaches that without spiritual health, our physical health is jeopardized. A friend of mine once worked as an intern in the emergency room of a large city hospital. Just as she was about to receive her medical degree, she had a personal crisis and gave up her aspirations to be a doctor. The turning point in her career was when she realized that the same drunken man would continually show up in the emergency ward. Each time he came, she would bandage him and send him back into the world, only so that he could hurt himself again and return to the hospital. She felt incompetent as a healer, realizing that all she could do was bandage his wounds but not heal his ailing soul. Because the man was psychologically unhealthy, she was simply empowering him to repeat his self-destructive pattern. Next time, she always worried, he would do himself or others even greater harm. This example clearly demonstrates the logic of first asking for mental and spiritual health before physical health. When our insides are fragile, our outside is easily broken.