Fat people, said yesterday's headline, will have to diet if they want to see the doctor. The proposal being floated is that patients might have to sign contracts with their doctors, committing themselves to lose weight, or cut down on smoking, or take more exercise, and those who fail to do so could lose their right to free care. Uh-oh, I thought, remembering my losing battle to fight the flab. What a crazy idea - to lose the services of your doctor when you need her most.

But then I remembered Moses Maimonides, the greatest rabbi of the middle ages, and one of the outstanding doctors of his time. And the fascinating thing is that he made much the same suggestion more than 800 years ago. He wrote a pioneering work of preventive medicine - with strong and sound advice about diet, exercise, hygiene and sleep. And the odd thing is that he didn't do it as a keep-fit manual but as part of his classic code of religious law. The body is the gift of G-d, and therefore he held that we have a religious duty to take care of it. One of the commonest mistakes we make, he said, is to lead an unhealthy life and then blame G-d when we get ill.

Tomorrow night we'll be celebrating the Jewish festival of Shavuot - when we recall the giving of the ten commandments to Moses and the Israelites: the culmination of their seven week journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai, from slavery to the great moment of revelation -- the journey from the rights to the responsibilities of freedom. By giving the Israelites a set of laws, it's as if G-d were saying: I'll protect you, but I need you to do your share. I'll help you, but you have to help me help you.

The Bible has a name for this kind of partnership. It calls it a covenant, meaning that both parties pledge themselves to one another, each agreeing to keep their side of the commitment. And I've always felt that covenant is a model not only for our relationship with G-d, but for relationships in general - with our marriage partners with whom we share a life, with the teachers who care for our children, and yes, with the doctors who look after our health. So perhaps the idea of a covenant between doctors and patients isn't so crazy after all. They help us, but we have to help them help us. So despite the fact that Jewish festivals usually involves a fair amount of eating, this year I'm going to opt for a little less feeding of the body and a bit more of the soul -- in the hope that my doctor will continue to see me, or better still, that I won't need to see her.

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