Thursday, November 26, 2020

How Do Dreams Help Heal Our Lives?

Parashat Vayetze
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The Spiritual Healing of Dream-Work
Dreams are our souls’ way of broadcasting wisdom to us every night. Yet, few people realize how powerful their dreams are for providing guidance and healing information. Dreams come from the unconscious mind, and most of our behavior is determined by our unconscious. Therefore, dreaming plays an important role in our well-being and health. Although I’ve been interested in dreams since adolescence, I don’t always remember my dreams. However, sometimes I wake up shaken by a vivid dream. When I remain in bed mulling over my dream, I am usually able to make sense of my dream and understand how it applies to my life. I also have several Torah books about dream imagery. Taking extra minutes of just lying in bed, trying to remember and embrace our dreams is invaluable for self-awareness and healing. Dreams can serve as deep psychotherapy. Therefore, I regret that I don’t always put enough effort into remembering my dreams. As I write this, I’m inspired to try and place a journal and pen by my night table, in order to write down my dreams as soon as I wake up, so I won’t forget them. This month of Kislev – the month of sleep – is a perfect time to start writing down our dreams in order to deepen our spiritual awareness and engender profound healing. Dream interpretation is part of the spiritual healing which results from looking inside and breaking through the exterior layers that separate us from our Divine essence, enabling us to connect and reveal the inner point within ourselves. Through dreams, we can become more in touch with our inner spark of Hashem – our neshama – that knows exactly what we need, in order to be 100% healthy and fulfill our mission in the world. However, we are so entrenched in our body and the physical world, that we are often unable to tap into the buried treasure of our soul. Dream interpretation can help us open a window into our inner essence and become more in tune with our neshama. The more we work on purifying our channel of intuition this way, the more we receive answers from Hashem to help heal our lives. We live in particularly important times with incredible changes in the world, and Mashiach around the corner. At the time of our final redemption, prophecy will return to Israel through dreams and visions, as our prophets teach: “It shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy; your elders shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions” (Yoel 3:1). Since “A dream is one sixtieth of prophecy” (Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 57b), and “an uninterpreted dream is like an unread letter” (Babylonian Talmud Berachot 55a), dream-wor, becomes especially vital in this pre-messianic era,.as preparation for prophecy.

 Letting Go of Knowing
To become a pure channel for Hashem’s messages, we need to detach ourselves from the analytic faculties of knowing, what is learnt from the Tree of knowledge. Similar to falling asleep, we need to turn down the volume of our external consciousness and tune into Hashem’s light within. In order to know something we don’t know; we must let go through the process of not knowing. Ya’acov’s most prophetic dream brought him to this place of not knowing: 

ספר בראשית פרק כח פסוק טז וַיִּיקַץ יַעֲקֹב מִשְּׁנָתוֹ וַיֹּאמֶר אָכֵן יֵשׁ הָשֵׁם בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה וְאָנֹכִי לֹא יָדָעְתִּ:

“Ya’acov awoke from his sleep, and he said, ‘indeed Hashem is this place, but I knew it not’” (Bereishit 28:16).

What was it that Ya’acov didn’t know? He exclaimed: “I didn’t know it was a holy place. If I would have known, I wouldn’t have slept there!” (Rashi ibid.). Ironically, it was through dreams he had when sleeping, that he came to know something he didn’t know. When we recognize “I didn’t know,” that is the moment when we begin to know. When we feel ignorant, we finally begin to be learned. So, we must learn to overcome our fear of letting go of “knowing” in order to really know. It’s like allowing ourselves to experience the lifting of our foot from the lower rung of a ladder, before we place it firmly on the next rung.

Healing through Dream-Work
“I am asleep, but my heart is awake” (Song of Songs 5:2). During sleep, dreams can awaken us to accomplish things that are impossible to achieve while awake. We can process emotional difficulties and conflicts, while subconsciously finding solutions to work them out. Dream-work entails becoming aware of our dreams, depicting their messages, and connecting them to the things we are going through in life. Through dream messages, we can gain deeper insights and learn how to better deal with the deeper issues in life. The language of dreams follows a language of pictures, rather than one of words. Picture language is the most primordial form of human communication. Infants, before ever learning to speak a word, have already learned a lot by simply watching the adults around them. Because we have been programmed to use our left-brain to develop our sense of logic, we have forgotten our innate understanding of pictures and feelings, which were much clearer when we were children. When we remember a dream, we have a gnawing feeling that we know what it means, yet we fall short of grasping its meaning. It’s like an itch you can’t reach to scratch (Based on Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzaddok). Dream-work can help us decipher the pictures and scratch more than the surface of the itch.

 Alive in G-d’s Dream

ספר בראשית פרק כח פסוק יא
וַיִּפְגַּע בַּמָּקוֹם וַיָּלֶן שָׁם כִּי בָא הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וַיִּקַּח מֵאַבְנֵי הַמָּקוֹם וַיָּשֶׂם מְרַאֲשֹׁתָיו וַיִּשְׁכַּב בַּמָּקוֹם הַהוּא :יב) וַיַּחֲלֹם וְהִנֵּה סֻלָּם מֻצָּב אַרְצָה וְרֹאשׁוֹ מַגִּיעַ הַשָּׁמָיְמָה וְהִנֵּה מַלְאֲכֵי אֱלֹהִים עֹלִים וְיֹרְדִים בּוֹ :יג) וְהִנֵּה הָשֵׁם נִצָּב עָלָיו:

“He arrived at the place and lodged there because the sun had set, and he took some of the rocks of the place and placed [them] at his head, and he lay down in that place. And he dreamed and behold! a ladder set up on the ground and its top reached to heaven; and behold, angels of G-d were ascending and descending upon it. And behold, Hashem was standing over him…” (Bereishit 28:11-13).

מדרש רבה בראשית פרשה סח פסקה יב
ר’ חייא ורבי ינאי חד אמר עולים ויורדין בסולם וחד אמר עולים ויורדים ביעקב

Rabbi Chia and Rabbi Yanai, the former said they ascend and descend on the ladder, the latter said that they ascend and descend in Ya’acov (Midrash Rabah, Bereishit Parasha 68, Piska 12).

According to Rabbi Yanai, Ya’acov was looking into himself. This is learned from the word “bo” “...angels of G-d were ascending and descending בּוֹ/bo ‘in him.’ As Sfat Emet explains, “In truth, the person himself is the ladder, and within him is the inner neshama, a part of G-d from Above. This hints to the aspect “G-d was standing upon him” (Sefat Emet, Bereishit, Vayetze 5647). A relationship with G‑d means a relationship with our own inner core. Alienation from G‑d means alienation from the depths of the self. Rav Kook says, “How can I speak words of Torah, if I do not find it within myself first?” Although intellectual analysis is a necessary part of the thinking process, finding Torah within ourselves is about tapping into the essence of what we are, from where we are, and how it connects. It is only when we can connect to the essence of ourselves that we are capable of bringing Torah into this world. The internal reality of dream is expressed well in the following anecdote: An eight-year-old boy asked his father, “Dad, are we alive and real, or are we only part of G-d’s dream?” The father replied that he’d have to ask a rabbi. They went to ask Rav Shlomo Carlebach. Rav Shlomo answered, “Wow, what a gevaldic question! Let me think about it awhile and I’ll get back to you soon.” A few days later Rav Shlomo phoned and said, “In reply to your son’s question – please tell him that we’re alive... in G-d’s dream!” This is what Ya’acov discovered. When you look inside, you see G-d’s dream (Daniel Nakonechny, quoting Holy Brother p. 91)



Thursday, November 19, 2020

Re-digging the Wells of Divine Healing


Parashat Toldot
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Below the Tip of the Iceberg
My friend, who is a therapist, has a picture of a beautiful glacier in her office. As awesome as it is to gaze at the sparkling ice reflecting rays of sunbeams against the blueness of the sea, we cannot even imagine all the hidden beauty of the glacier concealed below the water. Hence, we only see the tip of the iceberg. Whereas Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe his theory of levels of human consciousness, for me, the glacier is a symbol of our quest to uncover the hidden layers below the surface. These layers are multidimensional. They exist in the realm where the Creator is discovered within His creation, by delving into the inner dimensions of the Torah, and getting in touch with repressed layers of our own psyche. We live in time of great disconnection. Being disconnected from the inner layers of our being causes mental health issues. Even before COVID-19, the prevalence of mental illness among adults was increasing. In 2017-2018, 19% of American adults experienced mental illness – an increase of 1.5 million people from the prior year. Now, when traveling in the dimension of space is limited, it is the time to travel inward within the dimensions of soul, in order to reconnect its dispersed fragments. The work of redeeming our lost selves from their spiritual exile was the lifework of our fathers, who are known for digging wells. Beyond the metaphor of the glacier, representing the unconscious and subconscious dimensions of our psyche, the notion of digging wells is about the work of digging deeply within, probing the inner recesses of our heart and soul, to reveal our divine spark. We all contain multiple layers. There is the surface layer as well as subconscious and super conscious levels of our character. Whereas, we may seem perfectly all right on the surface, we need to go through the layers of mud, rocks and pebbles – to the source of our concealed shadow sides – hidden below the surface. Beyond our unconscious shadow sides – our super consciousness – the very core of our souls is even more deeply embedded within our psyche. Through the self-disciplinary quality of gevurah, our well-digging father Yitzchak was the most qualified to see that core, and not just know of its existence. The word בְּאֵר /be’er – ‘well’ is associated with the unknown deep – to delve into the most profound and mysterious. We all inherited the need to dig, to go deeply within ourselves, discovering and reclaiming the lost fragments of our selves. 

Three Wells Corresponding to Three Dimensions of Our Soul 

בראשית פרק כו פסוק יח וַיָּשָׁב יִצְחָק וַיַּחְפֹּר אֶת בְּאֵרֹת הַמַּיִם אֲשֶׁר חָפְרוּ בִּימֵי אַבְרָהָם אָבִיו וַיְסַתְּמוּם פְּלִשְׁתִּים אַחֲרֵי מוֹת אַבְרָהָם וַיִּקְרָא לָהֶן שֵׁמוֹת כַּשֵּׁמֹת אֲשֶׁר קָרָא לָהֶן אָבִיו: (יט) וַיַּחְפְּרוּ עַבְדֵי יִצְחָק בַּנָּחַל וַיִּמְצְאוּ שָׁם בְּאֵר מַיִם חַיִּים: (כ) וַיָּרִיבוּ רֹעֵי גְרָר עִם רֹעֵי יִצְחָק לֵאמֹר לָנוּ הַמָּיִם וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם הַבְּאֵר עֵשֶׂק כִּי הִתְעַשְּׂקוּ עִמּוֹ: (כא) וַיַּחְפְּרוּ בְּאֵר אַחֶרֶת וַיָּרִיבוּ גַּם עָלֶיהָ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמָהּ שִׂטְנָה: (כב) וַיַּעְתֵּק מִשָּׁם וַיַּחְפֹּר בְּאֵר אַחֶרֶת וְלֹא רָבוּ עָלֶיהָ וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמָהּ רְחֹבוֹת וַיֹּאמֶר כִּי עַתָּה הִרְחִיב הָשֵׁם לָנוּ וּפָרִינוּ בָאָרֶץ:

“Yitzchak dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Avraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Avraham; and he gave them names like the names that his father had given them. Then Yitzchak’s servants dug in the valley, and they found there a well of living waters. Then the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Yitzchak’s shepherds, saying, ‘The water is ours;’ so he named the well Esek, because they had contended with him. And they dug another well, and they quarreled about it also; so, he named it Sitnah. And he removed away from there, and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called it Rechovot; and he said, ‘For now Hashem has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land’” (Bereishit 26:18-22).

The three wells that Yitzchak dug seem to fit in well with Freud’s theory of the three levels of the human psyche: Id, Ego and the Super-ego. According to Freud, the id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories. The super-ego operates as a moral conscience, while the ego is the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego. Without being well-versed in the teachings of Freud, or any other school of psychology, I would venture to claim that this theory only remotely resembles the Torah’s teachings on the levels of the soul. The Jewish soul consists of three main levels: Nefesh, the Animal Soul, loosely corresponding to the ego; Ruach, the emotional soul, and Neshama, the Divine Soul. Whereas, the Nefesh is concerned with survival, Ruach can be jealous, angry or depressed on the one hand, while also being the source of intuition, higher consciousness and the divine inspiration of Ruach Hakodesh on the other. The next level, Neshama, has the ability to tune into the divine spiritual light to a much greater extent than the previous levels, automatically arousing the refined emotions of love and awe. Yitzchak called the first well עֵשֶׂק/Esek which means strife or contention, but which can also mean being occupied, and as a noun it refers to business. These meanings correspond well to the lowest level of Nefesh, mainly concerned with physical survival, making money, and being successful in the world. The second well, שִׂטְנָה/Sitnah meaning ‘hatred,’ could correspond to the second level of ruach, which includes negative emotions. However, the last well called רְחֹבוֹת/Rechovot – ‘expansion,’ over which there was no strife corresponds to the Neshama. In this level of soul, there is only goodness, for the impure shells are unable to attach to the level of Neshama.  

The Process of Moving from Constricted to Expansive Consciousness 
The purpose of Yitzchak in digging wells was to reveal the living waters, which exist below the ground, and to bring it up to the surface. The purpose is not to make water flow into the wells from another source; but only to reveal the living waters, which already exist within the wells themselves. These wells, on their own, retain the living waters, but it is covered up and blocked. When we remove the dirt, mud and pebbles, the living water is revealed. This teaches us about his spiritual work – to remove all the veils of the physical world and transform it into a vessel for Divinity. Like the living waters themselves, which rise up from below, he strove to raise it up from below to above (Rabbi Schneerson the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, Parashat Vayera 12). The reason a secular Jew, who embraces the Torah lifestyle is called Master of Return, is that rather than changing his way, he uncovers and returns to the truth, which was always there below the surface. When I returned to Torah in 1980, every new Torah idea, which I learned, seemed so familiar- as if I had known it before. It reverberated like Deja Vu, and that is how I knew it to be true. I was relearning something which was already part of myself. It had been taught to me even before I was born. It was buried deeply within my being and covered up by my secular upbringing, the Western culture, and my own inclination to separate myself from G-d. Besides the natural covering of the living waters, Yitzchak also had to deal with the negative forces that tried to prevent the holy work of digging the wells. Although the herdsmen of Avimelech chased Yitzchak’s herdsmen away and shut up the wells, Yitzchak was not discouraged but continued to dig the wells until he succeeded in separating and raising the sparks from their shells. This process of moving from constricted to expansive consciousness Yitzchak coined “Rechovot.”

The Wells and the Temples
The wells describe humanity’s encounter with the Torah outlook introduced by Avraham, promoted by Yitzchak and embodied in the Torah given to the Israelites. The blocking of the wells symbolizes covering up this true universal Torah with pagan doctrines. With enough persistence, the descendants of Yitzchak inherited his ability to triumph over resistance and antagonism against the truth of the Torah. When the Philistines could no longer deny the evidence of Yitzchak’s special relationship with Hashem, they were compelled to stop contending with him. Their prior banishment and rejection were suddenly replaced by acceptance and admiration. Yitzchak chose the names of the wells to instill emunah, by recalling how the precise moment of Hashem’s deliverance is unknown, yet His eternal covenant will eventually be fulfilled. Yitzchak’s experiences are a harbinger of the future. The three wells dug by Yitzchak refer to the three Holy Temples. The first and second temples were opposed by the nations of the world and eventually destroyed by the enemies. Nonetheless, the final well represents the future and final Beit HaMikdash – the holy Temple with the adjacent Sanhedrin, the highest court of the nation, from where justice and morality will emanate (Ramban, Bereishit 18:22). The third Temple will illuminate the world with true enlightenment. It will be accepted by all nations as a place for universal worship of Hashem – the one and only G-d. This final Temple will even be embraced and acknowledged by the very peoples who destroyed its predecessors (based on Destination Yisra’el A Blog for the Lost Ten Tribers Awakening to their New Reality).

Finding Your Soulmate at the Well 
Three people met their soulmate at the well: Yitzchak, Ya’acov and Moshe. Yitzchak, as it states: “Then Yitzchak came from the way of B’er Lechai Roi” (Bereishit 24:62). Ya’acov, as it states: “He saw, and behold a well in the field etc.” (Bereishit 29:2), and Moshe, as it states: “He sat down by the well (Shemot 2:15); (Midrash Tanchuma Shemot 10).

Many have pondered, why so many of the Biblical characters met their soulmate at the well? Water never comes alone. It is a substance wherein each drop cleaves to the other. In Hebrew, the word מַיִם/mayim – ‘waters’ is always plural. Through water, you can bind two substances together. It is, therefore, not surprising that it was at the well that Avraham made a covenant with Avimelech (Bereishit 21:27), and it was at the well that many soulmates met and made the covenant of marriage. The process of drawing out the water from within the depths of the well can be compared to the process of marriage. When two soulmates merge to become one, it is like two halves becoming whole, for they both draw out the hidden potential within each other. The well is a receptacle for water which symbolizes Torah. Intellectual Torah learning is not complete. To really make a commitment to Torah life, we must create a receptacle – a home in which Torah can flourish. Marriage enables a person to carry out Torah to its fullest. As we have learned, the well also represents the hidden layers of our psyche. When we have dug down deeply within our hidden selves and reclaimed our repressed fragments, we can heal and reconnect with our whole selves. Only when – through this process – we have become who we truly are, can we merge with our other half. By persistently digging down beyond the iceberg of our psyche, we might end up finding our soulmate at the well!

The Well of Miriam 
The well, which is deep and mysterious, symbolizes the woman. It is the feminine emunah that flows from the divine source and nourishes us with the sparkling drops of the Shechina. Hence the well from which the Israelites satiated their thirst in the desert, appeared through the merit of a women: Miriam. When Miriam died, the well of water ceased, and the clear connection with the Divine flow from above became obscured. Complete emunah was necessary to reconnect with the source of life – the Shechina embodied within the Torah. This emunah had to be expressed by our subtle effort of allowing G-d’s Divine influence to flow without employing too much force. This is the female power of being fluid like water, in a perpetual life-giving stream. The progression of the Oral Torah corresponds to the lifegiving water of the well. Each generation must add new vessels to bring the water down deeper into reality. The further removed from the source, the more subtle is the adjustment. Moshe, hitting the rock with harsh masculine strokes, instead of talking to it, missed uncovering G-d’s miraculous supervision, and lost this opportunity to sanctify Hashem. The emotion associated with too much human intervention is anger, aggression and force. The tikkun (rectification) is song, as Maharal explained. “Therefore, Israel sang this song, Spring up O well; sing to it…” (Bamidbar 21:16-18). They sang like Miriam at the splitting of the sea. Through song we become sensitized to work with the Divine flow via completely pure faith, taught by the holy women of Israel.

Never Stop Digging Deep! 
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Yesha’yahu 12:3).

Divine salvation is a self-deriving well. The more we draw from it, the more it is refilled by the flow of new waters. But how do we become like a nursing baby, enabling the flow of renewed milk in the ‘breasts’ of the Shechina? We must keep digging like Yitzchak, with steadfast emunah that below the mud, pebbles and sand of Western culture, we will eventually uncover the living waters of our Creator. This way we will reveal the truth of the Torah and the innermost dimension of our soul. Even within the furthest exile, there are hidden sparks, which need to be brought home. We have spiritual wells within us from which we need to keep drawing. Wells imply digging; they imply depth. Sometimes, we need to dig deep to get to the truths of G-d and integrate them into our lives. This can take on various forms, such as digging into Torah learning, spending time in prayer and hitbodedut, meditating on Hashem’s love and on getting in touch with deeper layers of our soul, walking in close relationship with holy people and friends, and cultivating a prayerful lifestyle. There is no one formula. Rather, we learn how to dig as we walk in the way of the Torah. When our wells get blocked, we need to allow Hashem to restore them so we can drink from the living waters. Let us continually ask Hashem if there are wells in our life that need to be unblocked. When we yearn, seek and pray for it, He will grant us life, Torah and healing!

Thursday, November 12, 2020

What Do we Learn from Yitzchak About Finding Consolation from Grief?

Parashat Chayei Sarah

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Coping with Grief
“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Tehillim 147:3). I was desperately brokenhearted when my father passed on two and a half years ago. Yet, some of the well-meaning remarks, from people who came to comfort me, were anything but words of comfort. I’m referring to comments such as, “…He was almost 91, he was old… his time had come… you were able to have your father for more years than most…” These kinds of statements disregard the mourning process, which does not follow calculated logic. A loss is a loss, despite the awareness that no one lives forever. Although it is a greater tragedy when a young father passes away, leaving a widow and small orphan children, than when a grandmother loses her father, everyone goes through a difficult process of grief. Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross introduced the “five stages of grief:” Denial: “This can’t be happening to me.” Anger: “Why is this happening? Who is to blame?” Bargaining: “Make this not happen, and in return I will…” Depression: “I’m too sad to do anything.” Acceptance: “I’m at peace with what happened.” “These stages were never meant to help tuck messy emotions into neat packages. They are responses to loss that many people have, but there is no typical response to loss, just as there is no typical loss. Our grieving is as individual as our lives” (Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Grief and Grieving). My dear friend from NY – who happened to be in Israel to visit me during shiva – spoke the most comforting words: “Now that your father has left this world, he is still here – within your own heart.” So, my greatest healing from grief was finding my father living on through me. After the shiva, I would look at myself in the mirror and recognize my father’s lips. I acknowledged traits which I inherited from him, such as the ability to make contact with any stranger on the street; the flair for words and pictures; as well as intuition and creativity. Putting my heart into planting a garden in his memory, translating and publishing his Memoir were also ways of keeping my father’s spirit alive. While the most intense grief is for the death of a loved one, even subtle losses in life can trigger a sense of grief. These may include but are not limited to: A loved one’s serious illness; divorce or relationship breakup; a miscarriage; losing a job; and loss of a cherished dream. The first step in healing grief is to acknowledge and accept our pain. In Parashat Chayei Sarah, Yitzchak loses his dear mother, with whom he had an especially close relationship. We can only imagine Yitzchak’s grief, yet, why is the Torah silent about his mourning? Why is Yitzchak completely absent at his mother’s burial?

Where was Yitzchak?
Yitzchak is curiously missing from the time he walked with his father to his own near sacrifice (Bereishit 22:8), until he comes out to meditate in the field and sees Rivkah riding on the camel (ibid. 24:62-63). While the Torah records the eulogizing and weeping of Avraham, where is Yitzchak? Why is he not mentioned as joining Avraham in burying and eulogizing Sarah? In fact, his duty to do so is even greater than Avraham’s. In addition, the love Sarah lavished on Yitzchak, whom she bore after waiting for 90 years must certainly have evoked reciprocal feelings in Yitzchak, so that he would surely have eulogized her. Perhaps, Yitzchak had not heard that his mother had died. Since Sarah’s death had been attributed to the binding of Yitzchak, people might have tried to withhold the information from him as long as possible. This is most likely the reason we do not hear a single word about Yitzchak in the whole paragraph, neither during the eulogy and weeping nor even during the burial ceremony (Rabbeinu Bachaya, Bereishit 23:2). Perhaps, Yitzchak was in a state of emotional turmoil and too traumatized by the Akeida experience to mourn properly. According to halacha, one should not be informed of the death of a relative if such news may be too traumatic and physically or psychologically devastating. Perhaps, Yitzchak blamed himself or his father for Sarah’s death and was too distraught to attend the funeral (Rabbi Jay Kelman, Chayei Sarah). According to the principle of the fight-flight-freeze response, perhaps the trauma of the Akeida caused Yitzchak to simply freeze into reactive immobility, unable to take any action, not even to seek his own wife. I believe that Yitzchak’s near-death experience at the Akeida put him in a coma. This view can by supported by the following midrash: “Avraham returned to the youths” (Bereishit 22:19). But where was Yitzchak? Rabbi Eleazar ben Pedat said that, although, Yitzchak did not die, the text regards it as if he died, and his ashes were sprinkled over the altar. Another interpretation: Where was Yitzchak?  G-d brought him into the Garden of Eden, where he remained for three years (Midrash Hagadol, Bereishit 22:19). It makes sense that Yitzchak, having just been raised up on the altar as a burnt offering, might go on to pursue further religious experience in Paradise – the place of ultimate spiritual perfection.

 Healing Grief through Eternalizing the Legacy of the Deceased
It was only upon his marriage to Rivkah that Yitzchak could begin the healing process of his grief.  

ספר בראשית פרק כד פסוק סז
וַיְבִאֶהָ יִצְחָק הָאֹהֱלָה שָׂרָה אִמּוֹ וַיִּקַּח אֶת רִבְקָה וַתְּהִי לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה וַיֶּאֱהָבֶהָ וַיִּנָּחֵם יִצְחָק אַחֲרֵי אִמּוֹ:

“Then Yitzchak brought her to the tent of Sarah his mother, and he took Rivkah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. And Yitzchak was comforted for [the loss of] his mother” (Bereishit 24:67).

This verse, describing Yitzchak’s consolation – the only biblical reference to the fact that he had been mourning for his mother – teaches us about the process of healing from grief. When Yitzchak brought Rivkah into Sarah’s tent, she revived the legacy of Sarah, as Rashi explains: “He brought her to the tent, and behold, she was Sarah, his mother; i.e., she became the likeness of Sarah his mother. For as long as Sarah was alive, a candle burned from one Shabbat eve to the next, a blessing was found in the dough, and a cloud was attached to the tent. When she died, these things ceased. However, when Rivkah arrived, they returned (Midrash Bereishit Rabbah 60:16; Rashi, Bereishit 24:67).

The spiritual greatness that was present in Sarah’s tent and disappeared when she passed away, reappeared when Rivkah entered into her tent. From this, we learn that maintaining the legacy of the deceased, and eternalizing their values bring the greatest consolation. Rivkah was the next link on the chain of Jewish womanhood, established by Sarah. Although, she was very different and did not replace Sarah, she carried on Sarah’s legacy to all future generations. This is one important aspect of “The righteous are called alive even after their death …” (Babylonian Talmud, Berachot 18a). This concept is alluded to by the fact that the parasha dealing with the death of Sarah is called Chayei Sarah – ‘the life of Sarah.’ Through her daughter-in-law, Sarah continues to live on even after her death.  

Living on Within Our Heart and Through Our Actions 
I recall the terrible tragedy of the murder of the two 13-year-old boys – Koby Mandell and Yosef Ishran –  near their home in Tekoa, in 2001. Koby’s parents, Sherri & Seth, responded to their grief by establishing The Koby Mandel Foundation to continue the spirit of kindness of their deceased son, by providing comfort for the bereaved. Today, the Koby Mandell Foundation is the largest provider of emotional support services for thousands of bereaved Israelis who have lost an immediate family member due to terror or tragedy. The Ashkenazi minhag (custom) to name a newborn after a deceased ancestor is another way of not only honoring but also reviving the legacy of the deceased. I clearly remember my grandmother being moved to tears at the brit (circumcision) of my oldest son, when we named him Meir, after her husband, my grandfather. Likewise, I long for the day when I will, G-d-willing, have a grandson, named Shlomo after my dear father Salomon! Meanwhile, I feel consolation from the planting of a memorial garden, Salomon’s Song Garden for my father. Also, I threw my heart and soul into the work of translating and publicizing his Memoir My Memoir: The Story of a Danish Jew who Fled the Nazis. These two ways of preserving my father’s legacy for generations to come – as he loved nature and also left a part of himself and his legacy behind through his memoir – brought me great consolation. They are constant reminders of the comforting words of my friend, that even when someone has left this world, he or she can still be here – within our own heart.

Thursday, November 5, 2020

When is the First Time ‘Healing’ is Mentioned in the Torah?


Parashat Vayera

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The Power of Prayer in the Healing Process
As a spiritual healer, I experience daily how prayer is the most vital aspect of healing. Who else but the One who created us, has the power to truly heal us? Sure, a balanced diet, supplements, alternative healers and sometimes even doctors and medicine have great effect on our health, but who empowers these healing agents with the ability to heal? The more we believe in the power of prayer, the more effective our prayer becomes. I have recently experienced this during my special nature hike for hitbodedut (speaking with Hashem one-on-one), earnestly evoking the help of heaven. When I returned home, I knew exactly who to call. She answered my first ring and responded positively to my proposal, so that my issue was resolved! I must remind myself, when I sometimes feel that I don’t have time for extensive prayer, that prayer actually saves time! How is that? Perhaps, instead of taking 30 minutes for a pleasurable nature hike, bonding with Hashem, I might have had to spend much longer trying to resolve my problem, by placing several unanswered calls, and leaving messages etc. to the wrong people. Another example of the power of prayer are the recovery of several friends and alumna students who were diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, for whom so many prayers have been poured from our hearts. One of them even published a new book since her diagnosis. Of course, I also know people who didn’t survive, despite our community storming the gate of heaven with our prayers. This could easily be discouraging and cause some people to doubt in the power of prayer. Yet, we need to remember that life is not simple, and we will never know Hashem’s ways. We need to strengthen our faith and believe that Hashem always does answer our prayers, but, for reasons hidden from us, sometimes the answer is “no!” This does not mean that our prayers were ineffective. Every prayer that graces our lips has an impact, whether on behalf of the person for whom we prayed, or for someone else who needs our prayer. We learn from Avraham “that whoever prays for mercy on behalf of another, when he himself also is in need of that very thing, he is answered first. For it states “Avraham prayed etc.” (verse 17), and immediately following it, “Then Hashem remembered Sarah,” i.e., He had already remembered her before healing Avimelech. 

An Anti-Missionary Concept from a Simple Grammar Rule
You may be familiar with the abovementioned concept, without having asked yourself, how does the sequence of the text teach us that Sarah was remembered before Avimelech was healed? Didn’t it mention first that Avimelech was healed (Bereishit 20:17) and only afterwards that Sarah was remembered (ibid. 21:1)? 

ספר בראשית פרק כ פסוק יז וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל אַבְרָהָם אֶל הָאֱלֹהִים וַיִּרְפָּא אֱלֹהִים אֶת אֲבִימֶלֶךְ וְאֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ וְאַמְהֹתָיו וַיֵּלֵדוּ:
ספר בראשית פרק כא פסוק א וַהָשֵׁם פָּקַד אֶת שָׂרָה כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמָר...

“Avraham prayed to G-d and G-d healed Avimelech and his wife and his maidservants, and they gave birth (Bereishit 20:17). “Hashem visited Sarah as he had said…” (Bereishit 21:1). 

Without reading Rashi carefully, it doesn’t actually make sense, how he learns that the most effective prayer for healing is the patient’s prayer for another patient: when you pray for someone else, and you need the same thing, you will be answered first. Yet, if you delve into the text in Hebrew, you will notice that all the verbs in verse 20:17 וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל וַיִּרְפָּא וַיֵּלֵדוּ are written with the ו/vav conversive, turning future into past. Yet, “Hashem פָּקַד/pakad – remembered Sarah” is written in regular past tense. I know grammar can be tedious, but Hebrew grammar greatly affects the inner meaning of the Torah text. Rashi employs the grammatical rule that the regular past tense following a series of verbs with ו/vav conversive takes the meaning of plu-perfect, meaning it happened before the preceding section. Consistent with this rule, Rashi learns that the intimacy, birth and conception of Chava took place before eating from the Tree (see Bereishit 4:1). This grammar rule is important to dispel a certain well-known Christian doctrine. 

The First Healing in the Torah Teaches us the Nature of Disease and Healing
Avraham teaches us that the most effective cure is through prayer. The very first instance when the root for healing ר-פ-א/resh/fey/alef appears in the Torah, is regarding Avimelech’s healing through the prayer of Avraham. Since, the disease of Avimelech’s household is the very first description of sickness and healing in the Torah, it teaches us about the nature of disease and healing. The words describing the condition from which his household suffered are כִּי עָצֹר עָצַר/ki atzor atzar – “For I had surely shut.” If you unscramble the word עָצַר/atzar it spells the word צַעַר/tza’ar – ‘pain,’ which is primary in disease. Experiencing pain is the body’s wakeup call to pray and adjust our lifestyle. Unfortunately, we have learned to repress our various pains rather than dealing with them. The first principle in healing is to learn to listen to the body. The other permutation, which we can make from the word עָצַר/atzar, is צָרַע/tzara – the root of the word צָרַעַת /tzara’at – the archetypal biblical disease, often mistranslated as leprosy, but being in truth closer to psoriasis. As we know, tzara’at is a spiritual disease, that comes upon a person as retribution for evil speech. This teaches us about the link between morality and health (without judging the sick as being immoral). Since every ailment has a spiritual root, the primary process of healing is teshuva – repentance. Avimelech’s healing depended on his repenting from lack of fear of G-d:   

ספר בראשית פרק כ פסוק יא וַיֹּאמֶר אַבְרָהָם כִּי אָמַרְתִּי רַק אֵין יִרְאַת אֱלֹהִים בַּמָּקוֹם הַזֶּה וַהֲרָגוּנִי עַל דְּבַר אִשְׁתִּי:

“And Avraham said, for I have said, there simply is no fear of G-d in this place, and they will kill me on behalf of my wife” (Bereishit 20:11). 

Therefore, in his prayer on behalf of Avimelech, Avraham invokes the name Elokim, which is even repeated in verse 20:17. The name Elokim – representing Divine judgment or ‘awe,’ is the inner experience of gevurah. The healing takes place through this name to rectify Avimelech’s lack of fear of G-d. Incidentally, I find the degree of Avraham’s kindness incredible. hHe goes out of himself to pray sincerely and precisely for the sake of the healing of the household of a man, who has just harassed his wife! 

What is the Most Vital Function of True Health?
It is interesting to note that the first healing described in the Torah concerns the opening of orifices that had been closed by Hashem, due to Avimelech’s harassment of Sarah: 

ספר בראשית פרק כ פסוק יח כִּי עָצֹר עָצַר הָשֵׁם בְּעַד כָּל רֶחֶם לְבֵית אֲבִימֶלֶךְ עַל דְּבַר שָׂרָה אֵשֶׁת אַבְרָהָם:

“For Hashem had surely shut every womb of Avimelech’s household, because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife” (Bereishit 20:18). 

This teaches us the primacy of fertility – being able to give birth – in the definition of health. Both the Hebrew words בְּרִיאָה/briyah – ‘creation’ and בְּרִיאוּת/briyut – ‘health’ share the same Hebrew root בָּרָא/beit/reish/alef. This teaches us that true health is to be fully created with the power to (pro)create. We can also extend the concept of opening orifices to the function of the digestive system and elimination. According to Rambam, the first objective in maintaining proper health is regularity and the first sign of disease is constipation. Rambam teaches that regular bowel movements and exercise are so important, that their proper maintenance can override the effects of an unhealthy diet: 

“A person should always attempt to keep his bowels soft and closer to a very soft stool. This is an important principle in healing. Whenever a person is constipated or it is difficult for him to move his bowels, bad sicknesses come upon him” (Rambam, Hilchot Deot 4:13). 

The Healing Power of the Blessing after Using the Bathroom
After eliminating, we thank Hashem with the following prayer of praise: 

אֲשֶׁר יָצַר אֶת הָאָדָם בְּחָכְמָה. וּבָרָא בוֹ נְקָבִים נְקָבִים. חֲלוּלִים חֲלוּלִים. גָּלוּי וְיָדוּעַ לִפְנֵי כִסֵּא כְבוֹדֶךָ שֶׁאִם יִסָּתֵם אֶחָד מֵהֶם אוֹ אִם יִפָּתֵחַ אֶחָד מֵהֶם אֵי אֶפְשַׁר לְהִתְקַיֵּם אֲפִלּוּ שָׁעָה אֶחָת. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה הָשֵׁם, רוֹפֵא כָל בָּשָֹר וּמַפְלִיא לַעֲשֹוֹת:

…Who formed the human being with wisdom and created within him many openings and many hollows. It is revealed and known in the presence of your glorious throne that if one of them were ruptured, or if one of them were blocked, it would be impossible to exist and stand in your presence even for one hour. Blessed are You, G-d, Who heals all flesh and performs wonders. 

The numerical value of the words חֲלוּלִים חֲלוּלִים is 248, corresponding to the 248 limbs of the body. This teaches us that reciting this blessing carefully, with kavana (intention) and thinking about the meaning of the words is a spiritual remedy for good health for our entire body throughout our lifetime. Many people have been saved from a great variety of diseases by making a commitment to make this bracha with kavana while reading it from a printed text.

This can be illustrated from the following anecdote: A sad and worried Jew once came to visit the Chazon Ish (Rav Yeshaya Karelitz) in B’nei Berak. When the man entered, the Chazon Ish was reciting the Asher Yatzar Bracha. He pronounced each word slowly and clearly. The man couldn’t contain himself any longer and blurted out, “My child has polio, and the doctors say there’s no hope.” The Chazon Ish emphasized the last words of the bracha: “Who heals all flesh and acts wondrously.” The Chazon Ish then turned to the man and said, “So, you hear that Hashem does wonders.” This is all the Chazon Ish said to the man. The child had a complete recovery. The Mashgiach of the Mirer Yeshiva, R. Yerucham Levovitz, z”l, used to say, that if a person were aware of everything that happens to food from the time it enters until it leaves the body, he would send a telegram home to inform his family that everything turned out well. 

Summary of the Healing Principles Learned in Parashat Vayera
At this time, when we are all concerned about our health and about strengthening our immune system, let us not forget the lessons from the first instance of healing in the Torah:

1.      The Power of Prayer in the Healing Process

2.      Every Ailment has a Spiritual Root

3.      Repentance is Essential to Healing

4.      Learn to Listen to the Body

5.      Keep the Bowels Moving

6.      Be Careful Reciting Asher Yatzar with Proper Intention