What healing alternatives to modern medicine does Judaism offer?
Lubavitch Hasidism
Good health in Judaism means far more than a physical body that functions properly, much more than a temperature of 98.6 degrees. Good health is a sound soul in a sound body. Modern medicine has begun to discover the dramatic effect that a person’s spirit can have on the healing process. People with healthy, optimistic spirits, for example, have been shown to have stronger immune systems. Conversely, even a small defect in the spirit can create a profound defect in the body.
Just as the body is nourished by certain foods, the soul needs spiritual nourishment. This nourishment includes an awareness of one’s mission in life and an awareness of God, who has empowered us with the abilities to fulfill that mission. A healthy soul connects to God through study, prayer and virtuous acts. As you fulfill your moral and spiritual obligations, your soul is fed with divine energy, just as your body is fed with material energy through the process of digestion.
Rabbi Yosef Y. Jacobson
Rabbinical College Chovevi Torah
Brooklyn, NY
Modern Orthodox
Resorting to folk remedies or “religious” and “magical” cures not validated by clinical measurements in cases when mainstream medicine cannot cure goes against the grain of Jewish religion. I acknowledge that certain religious types, such as Hasidim, have often turned to rebbes and other miracle makers to heal them. But things like whispering charms over wounds or belief in astrology, which Maimonides denounced, often reflects pre-modern thinking. To the extent that alternative medicine appeals to religious belief to discourage following sound mainstream medicine, it violates the Torah’s commandment “you shall guard [protect] your lives,” as interpreted in Deuteronomy.
When alternative medicine represents thinking beyond simplistic materialist models to recognize the role of mind and spirit, then it is a welcome expression of Judaism’s insistence that the human being is a body-soul unity. This insight that we must heal the whole person has been confirmed by research on how stress triggers a wide range of physical illnesses. Similarly, when alternative medicine grows out of the recognition of the limits of any one culture (thus, Far Eastern techniques of meditation or acupuncture may bring new medical insights to the West), this upholds Judaism’s insistence that no culture should be absolutized. Only God is absolute.
Rabbi Irving Greenberg
President, Jewish Life Network
Steinhardt Foundation
New York, NY
Sephardic
The Torah does not offer us any magical cures or superstitious practices related to healing. In fact, Maimonides, who was a physician as well as a philosopher, severely castigates those who recite Torah verses or perform other Jewish rituals with the purpose of warding off sickness. Not only do such individuals fail to take proper measures to ensure their health, they distort the Torah by making it a means to physical rather than spiritual prosperity.
At the same time, Judaism is not indifferent to the person suffering from illness. Our tradition encourages us, when sick, to turn to God in prayer and supplication and to engage in introspection and self-improvement. By rededicating our energies to the service of higher principles, we demonstrate our appreciation of the true value of bodily health, namely, that it sets the stage for the development of the mind and soul. We then hope that this internal transformation will be a merit for us before God and that He will bless our medical treatments with success.
Rabbi Joshua Maroof
Magen David Sephardic Congregation
Rockville, MD
Conservative
Our heritage believes in the sacred work of the healthcare professions. Quite simply, someone who is ill is obligated to take care of their Divine Image by seeking appropriate care—medical, psychosocial, etc.
But, over the millennia, we’ve also evolved a range of resources to further the healing of the whole person, both to support the body and to reach into other areas.
In the Bible, Hezekiah’s story illustrates the power of spontaneous prayer, life-review and ritual, and the Talmud highlights the centrality of touch and community in lifting people up. Maimonides, the 12th-century sage and esteemed physician, taught, “In order to strengthen the vital powers, one should employ musical instruments, and tell patients gay stories which will make the heart swell.” A 15th century Kabbalistic manual for reaching out to those who are ill (bikur cholim) offers healing prayers, meditations and practices; Hasidism, of course, stresses the healing potential of a deep relationship to the Transcendent/ Immanent One, to the Rebbe/Tzaddik and to the Creation. And last but not least, there’s chicken soup!
Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, Rabbinic
Director, National Center for Jewish Healing
New York, NY
Reconstructionist
“Visiting the sick lifts one-sixtieth of their ailment,” says the Talmud. Alas, 60 visits won’t cure AIDS or cancer. Still there’s tremendous healing power in thinking of, reaching out to and even praying for others.
Members of my own congregation attested to that power when interviewed for a segment on NPR’s All Things Considered in 2002. After joining arms and voices in our Shabbat custom of misheberach (healing) prayer, they shared their healing wisdom.
Sandy spoke of prayer literally improving a patient’s well-being; Michael, more skeptical, still affirmed the prayer’s “therapeutic effect for myself.” A pediatric oncologist, Jeff has seen people live longer when they enjoy emotional support. And, for Jane, when praying for those beyond recovery, “‘healing’ can really have a meaning that’s separate from ‘curing’…to give them some sort of peace.”
Each of these remarks touches on connection. The loving presence of family and friends is itself a wonder drug.
While agreeing with western medicine on life’s importance (pikuach nefesh), Judaism focuses us beyond “treatment” or even “wellness.” Our prayers and rituals point further: to wholeness and peace, to refuat hanefesh urefuat haguf, the healing acceptance of soul and body within the beautiful mystery of Life.
Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb
Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation Bethesda, MD
Renewal
While all of Jewish tradition offers support for those in need of healing, the Kabbalists provide a holistic framework that asserts that all four worlds, or realms, of life (soul, mind, heart and body) should be fully vibrant and integrated for total health. Healing in any of them leads to a more joyful and satisfying life.
Many Jewish healing prayers can be deployed to assist in these worlds. These practices flow from a core Jewish belief that God can bring about miraculous healing. One useful way to understand this is that clearing out impediments to fulfilling our life’s mission can bring in divine energy to catalyze healing. Judaism has examples of meditation and heartfelt intercessory prayer used to open blockages.
A blessing is offered three times each weekday in today’s prayer book. A public misheberach is said on Shabbat during the Torah service. Psalms are recommended for daily use. Special healing meditations and services are offered at many synagogues. Ritually adding or changing a name is said to breathe new possibilities into one’s life. Making and wearing an amulet such as a red thread, based on the understanding that prayers can be embodied in physical objects, is becoming common again.
In addition it is now possible to find a guide, called a mashpia, or spiritual director, trained to help people deepen their relationships to God and Jewish practice, thereby making them more open to the healing process.
Rabbi Shohama Weiner
Temple Beth-El
City Island, NY
Rabbi Nadya Gross
Pardes Levavot
Boulder, CO
Independent
Judaism, like many aboriginal cultures, has a rich Shamanic tradition around healing. The second-century Rabbi Akiva traced the Torah’s view on healing to its injunction to restore something that has been lost to them rather than fixing what is wrong. When we are ill, we lose some piece of our life flow, some part of our passion and commitment to life, and that is what needs to be restored.
Sometimes we get so entangled in our ailment that conventional attempts at restoration are frustrated. We would then employ a shofar, believed to wield the power of shattering resistance. The shofar is also a conduit for empowering medicinal plants and herbs. Such rites are intended to stir us out of whatever stupor might be keeping us entangled in our crisis, and to empower us with a fresh sense of life-commitment.
The most potent remedies are to be found in the earth. Plants wield great wisdom and powers imbued with divine energies. The Talmud recounts that “a stone hung from the neck of Abraham our Father, and all who gazed upon it were healed.” Other Shamanic Jewish medicine rituals involve mantric chanting, incantations, fire, dance and drumming. The wide variety of healing modalities in Judaism also include more conventional remedies like a good night’s sleep and sexual intercourse.
Faith and prayer, too, are important medicines. The most fundamental remedy for illness, however, is joy. In Hebrew, both “affliction” and “dance” share the same word: machol. “When there is a defect in one’s quality of joy,” taught Rebbe Nachmon, “it leads to illness...and it is through rejoicing that all illnesses are cured.”
Ravi Miriam Maron
Rabbi Gershon Winkler
The Walking Stick Foundation
Cuba, NM
Humanism
A starting point for many secular Jews is an acceptance that the premise—that life is supposed to be fair—is, in fact, a myth. A first step toward healing is accepting, not fighting, this unalterable reality. We get here not with remedies or alternative practices but with clear thinking and existential honesty.
While the idea of prayer to an “other” may be a foreign concept, the notion of private introspection is familiar. We believe in the power of positive affirmation. We believe in our ability to find inner strength, resolve and even courage to face life’s ordeals. In this quest for inner peace, secular Jews eschew mystical solutions or others that smack of too much New Age spirituality. But they are likely to welcome non-religious techniques from eastern cultures or our own traditions that teach about meditation and regulated breathing.
We also know we cannot do it alone. We need the support and compassion of family and friends who call to chat, who e-mail a joke, who come to visit. We welcome their presence and appreciate their concern. When someone says, “I’m thinking about you,” nothing could be more healing.
Rabbi Peter H. Schweitzer
The City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism New York, NY
