What was R' Chanina's Technique to Revive R' Yochanan?

Question

The Talmud in Brachot 5b states:

רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן חֲלַשׁ. עָל לְגַבֵּיהּ רַבִּי חֲנִינָא. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: חֲבִיבִין עָלֶיךָ יִסּוּרִין? אֲמַר לֵיהּ: לֹא הֵן וְלֹא שְׂכָרָן. אֲמַר לֵיהּ: הַב לִי יְדָךְ. יְהַב לֵיהּ יְדֵיהּ, וְאוֹקְמֵיהּ.

Rabbi Yoḥanan fell ill. Rabbi Ḥanina entered to visit him, and said to him: Is your suffering dear to you? Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: I welcome neither this suffering nor its reward. Rabbi Ḥanina said to him: Give me your hand. He gave him his hand, and Rabbi Ḥanina stood him up and restored him to health.

אַמַּאי, לוֹקִים רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן לְנַפְשֵׁיהּ?

The Gemara asks: Why did Rabbi Yoḥanan wait for Rabbi Ḥanina to restore him to health? If he was able to heal his student, let Rabbi Yoḥanan stand himself up.

אָמְרִי: אֵין חָבוּשׁ מַתִּיר עַצְמוֹ מִבֵּית הָאֲסוּרִים.

The Gemara answers, they say: A prisoner cannot generally free himself from prison, but depends on others to release him from his shackles.

The Gur Aryeh (Genesis 21:17) explains:

הב לי ידך ואוקמיה', ופירוש התחזק עצמך ואז יגיע לך עזר אלהים שתהיה חזק, ובזה שייך 'אין חבוש מתיר עצמו', שאין האדם מתחזק עצמו, וצריך אחר לחזקו.

Give me your hand and he stood him up - meaning, strengthen yourself and then God's help will come to you that you should be strong. This is the relevance of 'a prisoner cannot release himself,' in that a man cannot strengthen himself and needs another to strengthen him ..

*What's the technique? Doesn't sound like R Chanina's touch magically cured him because the Maharal's 'התחזק' is reflexive. - 'you, R Yochanan must self-strengthen.' Imagine, that R' Yochanan's yesurin involved painful stomach aches. How exactly was he, as a first step, to self-strengthen?

Answer 1

The Ben Yehoyada has a lot of kabbalistic explanations of what הב לי ידך ואוקמיה וכו means and what method was used to heal. Although the Ben Yehoyada's comment seems to be going on the story of Rebbi Elazar and Rebbi Yochanan, he discusses the story of Rebbi Chiyah bar Abba and Rebbi Yochanan in his explanation. I'll provide the first explanation of the Ben Yehoyada which most people will understand much more than the other explanations:

נראה לי בס"ד דידוע החולי הוא מסיבת הדינין שלא נמתקו, וידוע כי הדינין הם מצד שמאל, ונמתקים בחסדים שהם בימין, כי חמש אצבעות ימין רומזת אל חמשה חסדים, וחמש אצבעות שמאל רומזים אל חמשה גבורות, ולכן בא כנגדו פנים בפנים לעשות כונה של מיתוק הגבורות בחסדים, ואמר ליה הב לי ידך הרי נעשה שמאל רבי יוחנן בימין של רבי חייא, ושמאל של רבי חייא בימין של רבי יוחנן, ואז על ידי הכונה של המיתוק שעשה בשרשים למעלה על ידי פועל דמיוני זה שעשה בידים, נתמתקו הדינין ונסתלק החולי ואוקמיה, ומקשי בגמרא ליקום רבי יוחנן לנפשיה כלומר הוא לבדו מעצמו יעשה הכונה של המיתוק הנזכר, בפועל דמיוני שבידים שלו, כי גם אצלו יש ימין ושמאל, ויתן זה כנגד זה, ויכוין בהם ומשני אין חבוש וכו'. והנה בספרי הקטן ברכת אבות הבאתי מדברי מהרח"ו ז"ל בשער רוח הקודש שכתב על רבינו הארי ז"ל, שהיה יודע מן הדפק של האדם בחולי הנפש ומה הפגם אשר עשה, ובזה פירשתי בס"ד שם מה שאמר התנא כל המזכה את הרבים אין חטא בא על ידו, יעוין שם, והנה בהקדמה הנזכר יבואר נמי היטב המאמר כאן, דאמר ליה הַב לִי יָדָךְ, שרצה לבדוק בדפק כדרך הרופא לידע בו מן ענייני הנפש.

"It is known that illness results from judgments (dinim) that have not been sweetened. It is also known that these judgments originate from the left side and are sweetened through acts of kindness (chesed) which are associated with the right side. The five fingers of the right hand symbolize five acts of kindness, while the five fingers of the left hand represent five acts of judgment (gevurot). Therefore, by placing the hands opposite each other, face to face, the intention is to sweeten the judgments through acts of kindness.

When Rabbi Yochanan said, "Give me your hand," it was to place Rabbi Chiyya’s left hand in Rabbi Yochanan's right hand and Rabbi Yochanan’s left hand in Rabbi Chiyya's right hand. Through the intention of sweetening that Rabbi Yochanan performed in the spiritual roots above, using this symbolic action with their hands, the judgments were sweetened, the illness was removed, and Rabbi Chiyya was healed.

The Gemara raises a question: why didn’t Rabbi Yochanan perform this act for himself? Meaning, why didn’t he himself, on his own, perform the intention of sweetening the judgments with his own hands, since he also had a right and left hand? The Gemara answers with the phrase, "A prisoner cannot free himself from prison," indicating that one cannot always apply the necessary spiritual remedy to oneself.

In my humble work, "Birkat Avot," I brought the words of Rav Chaim Vital in "Shaar Ruach HaKodesh," where he wrote about our master, the Arizal who was able to determine, by feeling a person’s pulse, the state of their soul and the spiritual flaw they had caused. Using this introduction, the statement here in the Gemara, "Give me your hand," can also be explained well. Rabbi Yochanan wished to check Rabbi Chiyya’s pulse, as a doctor would, to understand the condition of his soul."

Look at the Ben Yehoyada there for a few other explanations.