From the Rabbi's Desk

Pain, hurt and sadness. Anxiety, frustration and disappointment. These are all emotions we try our best to avoid. We yearn to feel full and complete and content. We yearn to feel joy and ease. But life cannot be fully experienced through a prism that only engages half of the pantheon of emotions in the world.

This week the פרשה/Parsha/portion is called חיי שרה/Chaye Sarah or the Lives of Sarah. It opens with the death of the first matriarch, שרה/Sarah. In the spirit of biblical interpretation, the rabbis interpret the interconnected nature of the words, verses and chapters of the תורה/Torah and as such, when two things sit side by side, the text is hinting at a connection. In this case, we believe שרה died as a direct result of the attempted sacrifice of her son יצחק/Isaac at the hands of אברהם/Abraham, his father and her husband. שרה died from immense emotional trauma. There’s a מדרש/midrash, בראשית רבה נח:ו, that שרה died after הסטן/Satan came and told her what אברהם had done. The grief and trauma she experienced at that moment hastened her death.

Grief and trauma are acute forms of mental illness. They’re something every person will contend with over the course of their lives. Each of us will endure grief and trauma in different ways, and some of us will be able to do better than others. Mental Illness is something we tend to not want to talk about. We tend to stigmatize the mentally ill and treat them as weak and other. The problem with this is it only deepens the pain and loneliness of the afflicted… of the sick. We need to come to terms as a society with the basic fact that mental illness is no different than heart disease, cancer, diabetes and any other physical ailments. One doesn’t have cancer because they are weak. One doesn’t have intestinal disease because they are weird. All illnesses are just that… illnesses. When we embrace those around us who are sick, we enable them to be a part of a community that cares and works together to heal the sick.

Last week, I had the honor to attend the Finding Peace of Mind Through Brain Science and Spiritual Practices: A Faith-Based Symposium conference at the Carter Center. It was an honor to be there and the learning was incredible. We spent the day learning about the real impact religious practice and spirituality can have on people. We learned from Dr. Andrew Newberg, MD about his research into a field he called Neurotheology. He’s published numerous articles and books on this subject and all of them are worth our attention. We also spent time discussing the real-world crisis in our midst; the State of Georgia is woefully at the bottom of the US in terms of access to quality mental health care. We spent time talking about the real need religious communities have to be at the front of the work for the mental health of those around us. We must recognize that the value of פיקוח נפש/pikuach nefesh/saving a life is not only about the body but about the whole person. We must also recognize saving a life when it comes to mental health prevents the necessary saving of a life in terms of physical health.

The book of קהלת/Kohelet/Ecclesiastes speaks about the hardships of life. In looking at this magnificent book, we become more aware that a life well-lived is not just one that experiences joy all of the time but one that embraces the complexities of a life filled with highs and lows and ups and downs. Through the acknowledgment of real hurt, trauma, sadness, grief, anxiety and so many other hard realities, we enable others in our midst, including ourselves, to feel a bit more relief and a bit more fullness over the course of their lives.