Wholly Whole
Jewish Paths To Peace
BY VICKI CABOT
Rabbi H. Rafael Goldstein calls it the "growing edge."
It's the place in our lives in need of repair or renewal, the sharp corner or ragged edging that reminds us of our imperfections even as it stirs us to smooth or soothe them.
Everyone has them, suggests the rabbi, and they provide opportunities for personal growth that can lead to wholeness and acceptance, or healing.
"Wholeness is something we are all working on and never achieve," explains the rabbi, who has extensive experience in the field of Jewish healing, particularly working with AIDS patients. Goldstein is vice president of Jewish affairs at Jewish Family & Children's Service.
It's a process, says Judith Engelman, a Valley psychiatrist with an avid interest in wholeness, an integration of mind, body, and spirit that can enable an individual to realize his or her full potential.
"It's being accepting of yourself, (and understanding that) we are all perfectly imperfect by nature," says Engelman, who also teaches yoga and recently retired from private practice to write and do personal coaching.
Physician Howard Silverman evokes the Native American medicine wheel to describe the striving for inner peace that is the essence of healing. The four components - physical, spiritual, mental, emotional - create dual fulcrums on which that balance weighs.
There is no one formula to achieve wholeness, stresses Silverman, whose career path is guided as much by his skills in medicine as by spiritual healing.
Current assistant dean for information services and clinical professor of family and community medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix, in partnership with ASU, Silverman has worked in hospice care, geriatrics and integrative medicine. He explains how treating physical ailments is but one aspect of healing, which is the combination of all four elements.
"(Healing) is all about transformation," he says, how we use our experiences to change ourselves, and change our world.
For many, a life experience triggers the regenerative process. Engelman says a debilitating injury while in medical school, two later failed marriages and being unable to have children spurred her own search.
Silverman speaks of how the arrival of his daughter, Ariel, blind from birth, informed his seeking.
Pain often sparks the process; "Either you suffer for 31 years or you get hit by lightning," Silverman says an old medicine man once told him about the impetus to seek healing.
Also, awareness is key. "It's consciousness of the bigger picture," says Silverman of the potent potential to heal.
Goldstein, whose Dynamics of Hope Consultants reaches out to those touched by serious illness or loss, suggests that spiritual healing requires looking inward to ourselves, outward to others and upward to God. Those three elements are what can infuse it with intrinsically Jewish character.
Silverman explains that Judaism is steeped in a mystical tradition, decimated in the wake of the Holocaust. Its loss in the aftermath of the Shoah led some seekers to alternative paths, outside Judaism, to find spiritual fulfillment. Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism, were very appealing.
The Jewish healing movement began as a conscious effort to recover Judaism's spiritual roots.
Silverman says that Judaism offers many different paths for those searching for spirituality and wholeness.
"Its koach, strength, comes from its many doors," he says.
For some, those doors open inward in prayer and meditation. For others, they open outward in study, in community and in doing mitzvot, good deeds.
For still others, they may open upward to the sounds of the chanting of Torah or the melodies of the niggim, traditional songs without words.
Engelman suggests that studying Jewish text can open us up to answering eternal questions of mission and purpose.
"Look at the Torah, the Pirke Avot" says Engelman, who embarked on serious Jewish study as an adult and became a bat mitzvah at the age of 53. "It is in every parsha (Torah portion) how to live your life."
Goldstein, who makes time to study every day, describes study as meditation. Over coffee one morning, he tells of delving into Psalm 27 and looking at the words "to live in the house of the Lord" and considering the multiplicity of meanings in the text.
"Hunting in depth for meaning that is hidden is a form of meditation," he says. It can lead to a better understanding of ourselves, and of the relationship between humanity and the divine.
"Reading text deepens the experience with God," he says.
And acknowledging some element of the divine is an essential part of Jewish healing.
"Until you get a sense of awe," says Engelman, the psychiatrist, "a sense of the connectedness of the whole, you have not done your work."
Goldstein notes that for some people belief in the divine does not come easily.
"They can't put their hands around a concept that speaks to them," he says. But finding a relationship with God as a force is part of finding wholeness.
Prayer is another possible door to healing. Engelman says the discipline, continuity and structure have the potential to heal. "The more you do it, the easier it becomes."
Goldstein adds that lack of Hebrew proficiency is not an impediment, and can be a valuable point of entry.
"Sometimes the hocus-pocus, the mumbo-jumbo, is just what I need," he says. "The mystery."
He also speaks to the value of silence in healing, and the need to listen. "Many people forget that we should be listening to what God is saying to us," he says.
And also to what others are saying.
Engelman emphasizes the role of community in promoting healing, providing necessary connections and support. Reaching out to others is also an integral part of healing and wholeness. Visiting the sick, paying a shiva call, giving tzedakah all can help to make us whole.
"But," cautions Goldstein, "you don't do it to get the benefit. There is no big collection of mitzvah points in the sky. Mitzvot are their own reward."
Gifts that keep giving, he might add.
"Tikkun olam, repair the world, there is micro and macro," says
the rabbi. "Repair yourself, repair the world."