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    Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness: A Personal Guide to Dealing with Suffering
    Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness: A Personal Guide to Dealing with Suffering
    Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness: A Personal Guide to Dealing with Suffering
    Ebook168 pages2 hours

    Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness: A Personal Guide to Dealing with Suffering

    By Kerry M. Olitzky and Debbie Friedman

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    About this ebook

    Healing the soul is a vital counterpart to curing the body. Grounded in the spiritual traditions of Judaism, this book provides healing rituals, psalms and prayers that help us initiate dialogue with God and guide us on the path of healing and wholeness.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTurner Publishing Company
    Release dateJul 30, 2000
    ISBN9781580238007
    Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness: A Personal Guide to Dealing with Suffering
    Author

    Kerry M. Olitzky

    Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky, named one of the fifty leading rabbis in North America by Newsweek, is well known for his inspiring books that bring the Jewish wisdom tradition into everyday life. He is executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, and is author of many books on Jewish spirituality, healing and Jewish religious practice, including Making a Successful Jewish Interfaith Marriage: The Jewish Outreach Institute Guide to Opportunities, Challenges and Resources; Introducing My Faith and My Community: The Jewish Outreach Institute Guide; Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness: A Personal Guide to Dealing with Suffering; Grief in Our Seasons: A Mourner's Kaddish Companion; Twelve Jewish Steps to Recovery: A Personal Guide to Turning from Alcoholism & Other Addictions—Drugs, Food, Gambling, Sex...; Facing Cancer as a Family; Life's Daily Blessings: Inspiring Reflections on Gratitude for Every Day, Based on Jewish Wisdom; 100 Blessings Every Day: Daily Twelve Step Recovery Affirmations, Exercises for Personal Growth and Renewal Reflecting Seasons of the Jewish Year; and Recovery from Codependance: A Jewish Twelve Step Guide to Healing Your Soul. He is also co-author of Grandparenting Interfaith Grandchildren; Jewish Holidays: A Brief Introduction for Christians; Jewish Ritual: A Brief Introduction for Christians; Renewed Each Day, Vol. One—Genesis and Exodus: Daily Twelve Step Recovery Meditations; Renewed Each Day, Vol. Two—Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy: Daily Twelve Step Recovery Meditations Based on the Bible and co-editor of The Rituals and Practices of a Jewish Life: A Handbook for Personal Spiritual Renewal(all Jewish Lights). Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky is available to speak on the following topics: The Jewish Twelve Step Path to Healing and Recovery Sparks Beneath the Surface: A Spiritual Read on the Torah Welcoming the Stranger in Our Midst How to Nurture Jewish Grandchildren Being Raised in an Interfaith Family Optimism for a Jewish Future

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      Book preview

      Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness - Kerry M. Olitzky

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      Jewish healing is a discovery and rereading of Jewish texts, a reinterpretation and invention of Jewish rituals developed through the eyes and heart of one who has experienced loss. All lead to bringing a compassionate presence to Jews who are ill, grieving or despairing, to their families and their caregivers.

      —Rabbi Rachel Cowan

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      B’yado afkid ruchi, be’eit ishan v’a-ira, v’im ruchi gevi-a-ti,

      Adonai li v’lo ira.

      Into God’s hands I entrust my spirit, when I sleep and

      when I wake;

      and with my spirit and my body also, as long as God is

      with me, I will not fear.

      —Adon Olam, from the liturgy

      Dedicated to

      David Nathan Meyerson, z"l

      May his memory be a blessing to us all.

      Contents

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      Acknowledgments

      Foreword

      Introduction

      ONE   A Healing God

      TWO    The Meaning of Illness and Healing in Jewish Tradition

      THREE    Healing Services: An Introduction to Prayers for Healing

      FOUR    Psalms of the Heart

      FIVE    The Role of the Individual and the Community

      SIX    The Process of Recovery

      SEVEN    Waiting Until Messiah Comes or, At Least Until the Next Office Visit

      APPENDIXES

      Prayers, Texts, and Resources for Healing

      Healing Centers and Organizations

      Suggestions for Further Reading

      Notes

      About The Author

      Copyright

      Also Available

      About Jewish Lights

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      Acknowledgments

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      There are many people who helped my family and me find the Jewish path to healing. They have all become our teachers. In particular, I mention and thank those individuals who helped me immeasurably throughout the development of this manuscript in ways that they may not even be aware of: Rabbi Daniel Brenner, Dr. Daniel Einhorn, Rabbi Peter Knobel, Dr. Carol Ochs, Dan Schechter, Rabbi Elliot Stevens, Rabbi Robyn Tsesarsky, and Marvin Zauderer. I am indebted to Sharon Gutman who shared her story of struggle and survival with me before the idea for this book had even been articulated. I also recognize the labor of Dr. Mark Straus, an early collaborator in this endeavor when the book was to take a different shape and form.

      Similarly, I want to acknowledge the good works of these organizations that are engaged in a variety of healing projects and shared their materials with me—their ideas are implicit in much of what I have written: Central Conference of Reform Rabbis; CLAL: National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership; and Synagogue 2000. I must also single out the National Center for Jewish Healing (and its subsidiary, New York Jewish ealing Center), which has been doing groundbreaking work in the field. By name, I mention Susie Kessler, Aaron Lever, Janet Sherman, and Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, without whose assistance this work would not be possible. I am mindful of the profound influence this evolving grassroots organization has had on the entire field of healing in the Jewish community, so it is difficult to determine the extent or specificity of its influence on these pages. Ahead of time, I apologize if I have inadvertently used an idea or even a word without properly acknowledging its original source as the National Center for Jewish Healing or one of its staff members.

      I must also acknowledge the groundbreaking work of Rabbi Yoel Kahn, formerly at Congregation Shaar Zahav in San Francisco, who laid the groundwork for services of healing. His own "Shema Koleinu: A Liturgy for Healing" (prepared with Rabbi Nancy Flam) significantly informed the section on healing services in this book.

      There are no words available to thank my editors, Elisheva Urbas and Lisa Yanofsky, whose keen insights kept me on course when I might have gone astray. They constantly asked the right questions and were there with just the right amount of guidance. While the words and ideas are mine, they both share in the blessing of this book and the work of healing that it assists people in doing. And to my publishers and friends Stuart and Antoinette Matlins, I offer my humblest appreciation. They constantly challenge me to reach deeper and higher at the same time, standing by me as we journey together through the desert.

      I must also thank my new colleagues at the Jewish Outreach Institute, Dr. Egon Mayer and Nastaran Afari, who provide the constancy of collegial support in the form of a team that makes such work possible, as well as the members of the board, with the indefatigable Terry Elkes as its president. They have helped me easily make the transition from one community to another, constantly reminding me of the blessing inherent in the work we do.

      Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to the many students who have given me the privilege of sharing these ideas with them in the classroom, in the hospital, and in brief moments of encounter. They have helped me to learn anew each day of God’s miracles.

      Most people will argue that responsible scholars and writers do not reveal the names of their sources when preparing a volume for public consumption. That is true. However, many of the people whose stories appear in these pages are witnesses to the miracle of healing. Many want their names attached to their stories and want their stories told, so I share most of the stories of healing in their own names, with their permission, relating them in their own voices. I am simply their spokesperson. I acknowledge their candor and willingness to share with me and with you.

      My family has helped me to understand the journey of healing that we embarked on together. To Sheryl, my soul’s partner, and to our boys, Avi and Jesse, who constantly provide me with unconditional love, the greatest ingredient for healing.

      —Rabbi Kerry (Shia) Olitzky

      Foreword

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      Debbie Friedman

      I have been engaged in the process of healing for all my adult life. Once faced with the physical limitations imposed upon me, I found that the healing process took on new dimensions. It was no longer enough to intellectually acknowledge the constant struggle in which I was engaged. My challenge was different now. I had to move beyond my seeking out a place in the world which was safe and comfortable. This was war, and at this time I was forced to take part in what was to be a constant battle with my body. I often had no choice but to surrender to the power of its constraints.

      I knew that the only way to survive this torture was to transcend it. My body had to become a metaphor for something in our lives that would make sense. Within this nightmare, my life, I had to find a world of hope and promise.

      It was the prayer Asher yatzar that first awakened me to the possibility of finding meaning in my life in the face of my newfound enemy. Not everything was working according to the divine plan which God had created. Sometimes it was impossible to stand before God and pray because there was so much not working. But after some time, I came to see that what worked, worked. This, too, was a part of God’s wisdom, and for this I could be grateful. I knew too that even if I could not find my place in the Asher yatzar prayer, I could always turn to the prayer Elohai neshama in which we are uplifted by the concept of God giving us a pure soul; a soul created by God, formed by God and breathed into us by God.

      This is the prayer to which I run when my body has given way. This is the place I go when I have done too much and I am unable to function. I am always hopeful that something good and helpful will come to be as a result of such an episode. I ask myself, What I can learn from this experience? What is my body telling me? How can I make this experience my lover, my friend and partner on this unpredictable and bumpy road toward meaning and understanding?

      How can I find ways to embrace this monster when what I really want to do is vacate, throw in the towel and cry out in anger: Okay, you win, now let me out of my misery. I remember lying immobilized. Was it I who stood up to Goliath? Certainly, I could not entertain the possibility of the valley of the shadow of death. I had hoped that goodness and mercy would follow me all the days of my life and that I would live in God’s house forever.

      And sometimes that was all I needed: a reminder that my ancestors held these prayers and poems and writings close to their hearts in times of celebration and in times of need. We who read this book, Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness, seek out the same hints of hope as those who came before us. This searching is what has sustained us through time and what sustains us now.

      Jewish Paths toward Healing and Wholeness provides us with the resources that reinforce our spiritual and emotional lives. By becoming more tolerant and understanding of ourselves and our respective afflictions, and by learning to see ourselves as the victors and not the victims, our afflictions will become our teachers, our friends and our partners in life and in prayer. The process of healing will ultimately become the promise of healing. We begin that healing in our immediate world, but the effects resonate beyond in our partnerships with one another and God. These are the seeds of tikkun olam. This is the Jewish path toward healing and wholeness.

      Debbie Friedman is an internationally renowned composer, liturgist, teacher and performer.

      Introduction

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      Healing Is Possible

      Through a relationship with God bolstered by the application of Jewish sacred texts and supported through an exploration of the self, we can find healing. I believe it and I will help you explore that belief too. That’s probably the main reason why you have opened up this book, and it’s why you are willing to enter into a dialogue with me and with the many others whose stories of healing fill these pages.

      Prior to reading this book, your only hope for the possibility of healing probably came from the world of traditional medicine. As a result of your illness—or the illness of someone you love—scenes of hospitals, medical laboratories, treatment centers, and physicians’ offices have become familiar sights. The medical routines have become commonplace. We measure our days by the endless hours of waiting. We’re overwhelmed: intimate questions posed by strangers; people poking and touching; invasive tests of all kinds; complicated machinery of cold ceramic and steel with electronic brains that whirl, beep, and buzz.

      We may have previously considered it unimaginable, but we have actually gotten used to this persistent assault on our senses and our selves. In an ironic sort of way, the familiarity of these hectic places that are home to the marvels of medical science provides us with some comfort at this turbulent time in our lives. They provide us with promise and direction. The routine gives us security. From a medical perspective, it’s all part of the conventional path toward a cure. Some physicians refer to it as normal protocol. We’re told that it is all necessary for our eventual well-being. So we endure it all and focus our attention on it, rarely daring to question, afraid that it might undermine our care. We simply do whatever we are told until we become weary from our interaction with the world of traditional health care. Then we are ready to gain some balanced perspective on our illness, ready to embrace a message of hope through a more spiritually based healing process. And it is exactly this path to healing that this book promises to explore.

      Healing Is Not the Same as Curing

      Spiritual healing is decidedly different than a physical cure. Some imagine them as one and the same. Others argue that one clouds over the essence of the other. For many of us, they are inseparably linked. Many people I counsel understand that it is nearly impossible to get to a physical cure without first building a foundation of spiritual healing—that’s why they come to

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