Healing and the Jewish Imagination

Description

Where Judaism and health intersect, healing may begin.

Essential reading for people interested in the Jewish healing, spirituality and spiritual direction movements, this groundbreaking volume explores the Jewish tradition for comfort in times of illness and Judaism’s perspectives on the inevitable suffering with which we live.

Pushing the boundaries of Jewish knowledge, scholars, teachers, artists and activists examine the aspects of our mortality and the important distinctions between curing and healing. Topics discussed include:

• The Importance of the Individual
• Health and Healing among the Mystics
• Hope and the Hebrew Bible
• From Disability to Enablement
• Overcoming Stigma
• Jewish Bioethics

Drawing from literature, personal experience, and the foundational texts of Judaism, these celebrated thinkers show us that healing is an idea that can both soften us so that we are open to inspiration as well as toughen us—like good scar tissue—in order to live with the consequences of being human.

Acknowledgments vii Introduction: The Intersection of Judaism and Health 1 Healing and Curing William Cutter 3 A Physician's Reflection on the Jewish Healing Movement Howard Silverman 11 1. The Importance of the Individual in Jewish Thought and Writing 13 Choose Life: American Jews and the Quest for Healing Arnold Eisen 15 Literature and the Tragic Vision William Cutter 42 2. Health and Healing among the Mystics 49 Mystical Sources of the Healing Movement Arthur Green 51 Wisdom, Balance, Healing: Reflections on Mind and Body in an Early Hasidic Text Eitan P. Fishbane 63 3. Hope and the Hebrew Bible 75 Reading the Bible as a Healing Text Tamara Eskenazi 77 "Call Me Bitterness": Individual Responses to Despair Adriane Leveen 95 v 4. From Disability to Enablement 105 Judaism and the Disabled: The Need for a Copernican Revolution Elliot Dorff 107 Misheberach and the ADA: A Response to Elliot Dorff Tamara M. Green 121 5. Overcoming Stigma 131 Spoiled Identity and the Search for Holiness: Stigma, Death, and the Jewish Community David I. Shulman 133 Those Who Turn Away Their Faces: Tzaraat and Stigma Rachel Adler 142 The New Man, Illness, and Healing Albert J. Winn 160 6. Jewish Bioethics in Story and Law 169 An Expanded Approach to Jewish Bioethics: A Liberal/Aggadic Approach Peter Knobel 171 The Narrative and the Normative: The Value of Stories for Jewish Ethics Louis E. Newman 183 Conclusion: Looking Back, Moving Forward 193 The History of Invention: Doctors, Medicine, and Jewish Culture David B. Ruderman 195 Notes 207

Sujets

• health
• Philosophie et théologie
• Jewish philosophy
• Judaism
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 29 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580235945
• Langue: English

Extrait

H EALING and the J EWISH I MAGINATION
Spiritual and Practical Perspectives on Judaism and Health
Edited by
Rabbi William Cutter, PhD
JEWISH LIGHTS Publishing
Woodstock, Vermont
www.jewishlights.com
Healing and the Jewish Imagination:
Spiritual and Practical Perspectives on Judaism and Health
2010 Quality Paperback Edition, Second Printing
2008 Quality Paperback Edition, First Printing
2007 Hardcover Edition, First Printing
2007 by William Cutter
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information regarding permission to reprint material from this book, please mail or fax your request in writing to Jewish Lights Publishing, Permissions Department, at the address / fax number listed below, or e-mail your request to [e-mail] .
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Healing and the Jewish imagination: spiritual and practical perspectives on Judaism and health / edited by William Cutter.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-314-9 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-58023-314-7 (hardcover)
1. Health-Religious aspects-Judaism. 2. Healing-Religious aspects-Judaism. 3. Medicine-Religious aspects-Judaism. 4. Bioethics-Religious aspects-Judaism. 5. Jewish ethics. 6. Spiritual life-Judaism. I. Cutter, William.
BM538.H43H43 2007
296.3'76-dc22
2006101447
ISBN-13: 978-1-58023-373-6 (quality pbk.)
ISBN-10: 1-58023-373-2 (quality pbk.)
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
Cover design: Tim Holtz
Cover art: Inspired by I Samuel 1, Hannah ( 1999) was created by Michael Bogdanow, an artist, lawyer, author, and musician living in Lexington, Massachusetts. Hannah meditates, silently pouring her heart out to Adonai in her anguish. She later gives birth to Samuel. The artist s contemporary, spiritual works of art inspired by Judaic texts can be seen on MichaelBogdanow.com.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Published by Jewish Lights Publishing
A Division of LongHill Partners, Inc.
Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, P.O. Box 237
Woodstock, VT 05091
Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]
www.jewishlights.com
C ONTENTS
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I NTRODUCTION : T HE I NTERSECTION OF J UDAISM AND H EALTH
Healing and Curing
William Cutter
A Physician s Reflection on the Jewish Healing Movement
Howard Silverman
1. T HE I MPORTANCE OF THE I NDIVIDUAL IN J EWISH T HOUGHT AND W RITING
Choose Life: American Jews and the Quest for Healing
Arnold Eisen
Literature and the Tragic Vision
William Cutter
2. H EALTH AND H EALING AMONG THE M YSTICS
Mystical Sources of the Healing Movement
Arthur Green
Wisdom, Balance, Healing: Reflections on Mind and Body in an Early Hasidic Text
Eitan P. Fishbane
3. H OPE AND THE H EBREW B IBLE
Reading the Bible as a Healing Text
Tamara Eskenazi
Call Me Bitterness : Individual Responses to Despair
Adriane Leveen
4. F ROM D ISABILITY TO E NABLEMENT
Judaism and the Disabled: The Need for a Copernican Revolution
Elliot Dorff
Misbeberacb and the ADA: A Response to Elliot Dorff
Tamara M. Green
5. O VERCOMING S TIGMA
Spoiled Identity and the Search for Holiness: Stigma, Death, and the Jewish Community
David I. Shulman
Those Who Turn Away Their Faces: Tzaraat and Stigma
Rachel Adler
The New Man, Illness, and Healing
Albert ]. Winn
6. J EWISH B IOETHICS IN S TORY AND L AW
An Expanded Approach to Jewish Bioethics: A Liberal/Aggadic Approach
Peter Knobel
The Narrative and the Normative: The Value of Stories for Jewish Ethics
Louis E. Newman
C ONCLUSION: L OOKING B ACK , M OVING F ORWARD
The History of Invention: Doctors, Medicine, and Jewish Culture
David B. Ruderman
N OTES
About Jewish Lights
Copyright
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
This anthology has involved the work of many people because so much of the thinking in our essays began as public discourse, classes, and speeches. My thanks to Lisa Kodmur and Michele Prince, who between them have guided the Kalsman Institute for seven years, and to Rabbi Don Goor, who has chaired the Kalsman advisory committee. Special thanks to Ben Cutter, superb editor and critic, and to Jessica Maxwell for her guidance in technical matters, along with Ellen Rabin and Yael Green. It s delightful to have worked with the folks at Jewish Lights Publishing, and with Karyn Slutsky, reader extraordinaire. To my wife, Georgianne, who has stayed the course in more existential ways, and who as a healer of young souls believes (properly so) that healing work must be done without calling attention to oneself.
One cannot do the kind of healing work that matters to me without the inspiration and cooperation of Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, who is missing from these pages only in the most formal sense. Wherever people care about the ill and needy, Simkha s presence hovers nearby. I dedicate this book to him and thank his colleagues at the New York and National Healing Centers who support him.
Thanks to former interns-now rabbis-Stephen Moskowitz and Mari Chernow. Thanks to Richard Address, a constant inspiration in his work for the Reform movement. The SeRaf group of healers was developed under the encouragement of Susie Kessler and Rachel Cowan, and elevated the healing agenda in America for many years. To the Bay Area Healing Center, a nod of appreciation for our collaborations. My former dean and still friend, Lewis Barth, encourages my plots. Bill Berk taught me what a community can do. David Freeman was the first published clinician on my path; and my friend Dr. Leslie Eber has urged me on and on! Peachy and Mark Levy, along with their Kalsman family, are behind it all. All of these people I set before me!
The Kalsman Institute began its work more than six years ago with a generous gift from Lee and Irving Kalsman. When Irving made one of his earlier journeys from illness to cure, he was assisted in healing by a young rabbinic student from the Hebrew Union College; Mr. Kalsman honored that young student with a donation to the Institute s work. From the modest beginning, his family has sponsored numerous conferences and institutes, and now-at least indirectly-has made this publication possible. We thank them profoundly as we thank the leaders of the Jewish healing movement who have urged the Jewish community to reflect more on the state of the individual spirit. And we want to express our thanks to those clinicians who cure us to the point where we can seek healing. We also thank the staff at Jewish Lights Publishing, particularly Stuart M. Matlins, Emily Wichland, and Lauren Seidman for their faith in this effort of faith, and for fostering intersections for us to write down and for you to read.
INTRODUCTION

T HE I NTERSECTION OF J UDAISM AND H EALTH
Rabbi William Cutter, PhD, is Steinberg Professor of Human Relations and Professor of Hebrew Literature and Education at the Los Angeles Campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He is the author of numerous articles on Hebrew literature, educational theory, and (most recently) aesthetic issues regarding health and healing. He is director of the Kalsman Institute on Judaism and Health.

H EALING AND C URING
William Cutter
It is certain that our bodies do not last forever, and that they can t even do everything we want during their physical lifetime. This condition makes life difficult and interesting, and it is a condition that has created much of the search for healing in Jewish tradition.
The authors of Healing and the Jewish Imagination accept the hardheaded realities that come from living with the limits imposed by Creation. Struggle with these realities is part of our human heritage and perhaps an even bigger part of Jewish tradition. There are yet other kinds of limitations-of a social and economic sort-that have direct impact on our spiritual and physical journeys. In this more socially practical domain, we want more than is available: more generosity of spirit, more promise of cure and health, more time and attention from those who try to cure us and more from those who promise healing. We want more people to benefit from whatever help is out there. But there is, after all, a difference between God and humans, and only God even qualifies for the measures of infinity. The rest of us live with a circumference around us, inspired to reach for more, in pursuit of God.
The essays in this book-in their aggregate-make the case that Jewish thinking provides an opportunity to gain some spiritual ground when we lack the things we seek. Jewish tradition ought to provide a challenge to make available more of the goods of the world to those who do not benefit from them. And it can provide comfort and proper spiritual perspectives for the inevitable sufferings with which we live. Most of our book deals with the comfort side of this ledger.
The tradition cannot solve problems; what it can do is get us started by providing the opportunity for both the comfort and the perspective that we must grasp for support. Our journey out of Eden is a fact, but accepting that fact from the biblical narrative is not enough. It takes discipline and a maturing of spirit to learn how to find consolation in our search for satisfactions that sometimes elude us because we no longer dwell in Eden. Healing is one of those ideas that softens us up so that we are open to inspiration; but it can also toughen us-like good scar tissue-to live with the consequences of being human.
The context of finitude, then, is where we begin as human beings. Each essay in this book bespeaks that finitude, and each author seems to have understood that healing is sometimes available even when cure is not. (Professor Arthur Green is quite explicit about that.) The authors have understood-even if only implicitl