TORONT O— Judaism makes a distinction between curing and healing, said Rabbi Dow Marmur, rabbi emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple, at a conference sponsored by the Toronto Jewish Healing Project, held last month at Beth Tzedec Congregation.
“A lot of people are cured but not healed, and vice versa,” he said at a workshop following the keynote address by Beth Tzedec Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl.
The Toronto Jewish Healing Project, co-ordinated by Etta Ginsberg McEwan, is now under the auspices of Jewish Family & Child as part of its chaplaincy. It offers a variety of coping skills and techniques, including singing, psalms, meditating and the studying of sacred texts.
Rabbi Marmur, a member of the healing project’s steering committee, said too many people believe solely in the cure. “We need to learn to embrace life despite the pain. We must heal enough so we can face life as is.”
The group uses the term “healing” instead of “healed,” he said because healing is a continuous process.
By taking the healing project under its umbrella, he said, JF&C has recognized that the agency has a role beyond social work. “They have to help people cope in various situations.”
Rabbi Frydman-Kohl said that incorporating the healing project into JF&C is a big development because it moves it from the margins into our organizational structure. “The project has not yet caught fire, but it has been good for many people.”
Through prayer, he said, we may all be comforted. “We all have times when we need someone to take care of us. We might come home and cocoon, we might go to someone with a hug, or we might go to synagogue to hear some familiar melodies. [These things] allow us to go to a safe place and then go forward.”
In praying, he said, we need to get in touch with our deep feelings, and put them into words.
We all need a place to sulk, he said, “and praying is a time in which we can go back and recognize our needy selves and get replenished.”
He said Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionist Judaism, said that prayer is a form of self-examination, the raising of the best part of oneself.
“He also saw prayer as [performing] a social function, as helping to build a community. The sense of singing and music brings people together.”
He added that Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, a 20th-century philosopher and teacher, says that we are able to pray because of historical precedent. “Prayer allows us to approach God. [Otherwise] we would be silent.”
Citing Constantin Stanislavski, a Russian theatre director from the early 20th century, Rabbi Frydman-Kohl said that when on stage, actors have to move beyond the external representation of acting. “They have to go deep into their persona and bring that onto stage.”
In prayer, as well, he said, we need to get in touch with our deep feelings and put them in words. “We have to take our emotions and conjure them up.”
He said Chassidim believe that when praying, we should concentrate on the words being said until we see the light. “We shouldn’t just recite the prayers, but we should go right into them. We are supposed to strip our souls of earthly clothing and garb ourselves in the words of prayer.”
Whatever a person’s interpretation of prayer, he said, “we find our own way. Prayer is a vehicle for transcending oneself and for coming together on an emotional level.”
The conference also included an experiential workshop using the techniques of prayer, meditation and spiritual direction to discern God’s voice, a workshop on making prayers more effective, and a service of healing led by Temple Kol Ami Rabbi Daniel Komito-Gottlieb and Dawn Bernstein.