Tag: Holocaust

Conversation with a new friend from France

Sep. 24 D'vrei Torah, Reflections on Aging no comments
Anthony Selvitella

Anthony Selvitella, LCSW

“Let us now relate the awesomeness of this day’s holiness,” the Unetanneh Tokef commences. This year, the day’s “holiness” for me was displayed by the meeting of a new friend. After schul, I started up a conversation with a lady I had been admiring for her kind, yet distinguished, presence during the service. Quickly we seemed to bond, and she related to me her story of being a hidden child in Normandy during the War. Renée Roth-Hano told a miraculous and terrible story, softened by the captivating lilt of her French accent. We instantly became friends, and I felt that I had known her for years. (Not to mention her insistence that I practice my rusty French with her!) Read more

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D’var Torah: When the truth is found to be lies: The Coen brothers’ Rorschach for serious people

Jul. 01 D'vrei Torah no comments

I learned about Jewish spirituality in a yoga class in 1971. I lay prone on the carpeted floor, relaxing after achieving the challenging Bridge posture for the first time. I had thought that the pose’s name came from its shape:  Lying on my back, I pushed my feet and hands into the floor until the trunk of my body rose in an arc that resembled a bridge.

Rabbi Ann Brener, LCSW

Rabbi Ann Brener, LCSW

But as I regained equilibrium after the posture, I became uncertain about the name. As I lay there, I had the sense that the pose had enabled me to bridge the breach between the living and the dead, the holy and the profane, the body and the soul. Everything felt profoundly connected. I began to weep, and from my unconscious rose the words of the Shema. I chanted the words and lingered on the word “echad” (One). I lay there, my cells tingling, sensing the holy connection between all things. Like Job, I knew God in my flesh.

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Physician as Wounded Healer – Dr. Donald Friedman, MD

May. 01 Health and Wellness Programs, Thought Pieces no comments

The concept of the physician as a wounded healer and how it can positively affect the practice of medicine has been around for a long time.  In Greek mythology. Chiron was the first wounded healer.  He was accidentally wounded by an arrow from Heracles’s bow.  He didn’t die, but suffered terrible pain for the rest of his life, as the wound never totally healed.

Donald M. Friedman, MD

Donald M. Friedman, MD

Chiron searched for his own cure and in the process learned about suffering and healing.  He taught others, particularly Esculapius, one of the founding fathers of Western medicine, about the healing arts and through his teaching found comfort from his pain.  It was because of his deep wound that Chiron became known as a great healer in ancient Greece.  Well known historical figures have commented on this image of the wounded healer over the years.  Plato said that the most skillful physicians rather than being models of good health are those who have suffered from all sorts of illnesses.  Thomas Jefferson asked, “Who then can so softly bind up the wound of another as he who has felt the same wound himself?”  Carl Jung, the famous psychotherapist, said “The doctor is effective only when he himself is affected.  Only the wounded physician heals.”  Jung also believed that a malady of the soul was the best possible form of training for a healer.

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