Health, physical and spiritual

The Rav Name: Rabbi Yitzchak Arad

Hello Rabbi,

It has become my understanding that all things physical are manifestations of things spiritual, and that ailments that plague us are symptoms of spiritual flaws that need correcting… I have a few minor health issues and I was wondering what lesson I might be able to take from them and how I can heed the call and address the spiritual issue causing it… of course I want to be healed physically too. One of the few issues that I have had lately is the following:

Over a year ago, I noticed that I was losing a lot of the hair on my head… a young, healthy girl should not be losing her hair, so I went from doctor to doctor to figure out the possible causes. Every doctor (seven of them) had another opinion and another “possible” diagnosis and treatment, and most of them did not agree with the other. Finally, after many blood tests, one of them saw that the ferritin levels in my blood were extremely and problematically below normal. (I think ferritin is a protein that stores iron.) So I was called “iron deficient” and “anemic” and was given iron pills to take every day (even this, none of the doctors agreed on).

I think that without the extra iron stores, the body cannot produce enough of a component of the red blood cells called hemoglobin, which carries oxygen through the blood for it to be transported throughout the body. My understanding is that because I was ferritin deficient, I didn’t have enough stores of iron to build the component of my red blood cells that carries the oxygen, so my body had to conserve the little oxygen that it could carry, and therefore it stopped transporting it to “nonessential” parts of my body (like my hair) in order to make sure that there is enough oxygen to get to my essential organs… (interesting chain reaction from one little thing, and interesting “safety” mechanism, thank G-d)….

One doctor “thinks” that this is the reason for my hair loss, and that once my ferritin level is restored to normal (which, I’ve been told, could take a few years), my hair will stop coming out and will be restored partially or fully. It’s kind of scary to be a young girl losing her hair for a reason that no doctor can agree upon, and when doctors say “probably” or “maybe” my hair will be restored, with no guarantees, I feel like panicking.

I am trying to drill into my head, from my frustrating experiences over the last year, that my healing will not be in the form of a good doctor or a pill. I respect the knowledge that doctors have, but I am coming to see that doctors don’t have the all-knowing healing power that I used to think they had – and I am trying to use this as a chance to put G-d as the ultimate healer in my mind. With that being said, I am still taking the iron pills but I don’t think they will help if I am not meant to be healed, and I don’t know if I will be healed physically if I am not healing what has to be fixed spiritually (am I thinking about this in the right way?).

I am not sure how to interpret this particular ailment from a spiritual perspective, and I was hoping you might be able to provide guidance for me on what kind of spiritual area I should direct my focus on, based on these symptoms, and what kind of message this might be for what I need to improve spiritually. I’m pretty sure that these particular symptoms and issues are pretty symbolic in Judaism, but I am at a loss for how to interpret it all and what I should direct my focus and energies to.

Thank you so much for reading this and for your time and guidance. Shabbat shalom!

Shalom and thank you for your question. You wish to know what kind of conversion your daughter should undergo. There is no true conversion other than orthodox conversion, bear with me as I will shed some light on this topic. This is not to negate good Jewish things done by any Jew anwhere, every Jew and his or her connection to G-d and to the Jewish people is of supreme importance.

Today is the first of the Hebrew month Sivan. It is the day the Jewish people, having been freed from Egypt, camped at the foot of Mount Sinai “As one person with one heart!” This is the commentary of Rashi – Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, on the Torah portion of Jethro 19:1-2, which says “and he camped at the foot of the mountain” – using the singular form. Rashi is answering the obvious question – why does the Torah use singular form when we are talking about the entire Jewish people? His explanation points to the fact that although before and after receiving the Torah there were issues of divisiveness in the nation, at the actual time of receiving the Torah we were united. This is because for one thing, that unity is what made us worthy of receiving the Torah.

So every action of every Jew to connect with G-d and with the Jewish people counts. But who ARE the Jewish people? The ones who did indeed receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai and their descendants, and true converts. Why are descendants Jewish? The descendants were influenced spiritually by the experience of receiving the Torah. When a person experiences something it is engraved in his brain and he becomes predisposed to reliving that experience in some way. On a national level also there is a spiritual DNA from the experience of receiving the Torah which grants the people potential for keeping the commandments and revealing their essential connection with G-d. Truthfully the ultimate reason for the above definition of Jewishness is because this is how it is defined in the Torah, but I explained a little bit about how we can understand it. This national experience of receiving the Torah by the way, is unique to the Jewish people and religion. It is not the vision received by a prophet on his/her own. Millions of individuals were there and handed down that knowledge throughout the generations.

In Tractate Avot 1:1 we learn that “Moses received Torah at Sinai and handed it to Joshua and Joshua handed it to the Elders and they to the Prophets.” This shows the continuity of our religion. But which Torah are we talking about? Both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. This is the entire body of Jewish law – Halacha, Midrash, Kabbala and more. It is a package deal. Without the Oral Law, we cannot understand the Written Law. An example of this is that the Torah says in Deuteronomy 6:8 “and they shall be for a sign between your eyes”. This refers to Tefillin, phylacteries. The Chumash text does not describe the phylacteries, moreover, the term ‘between your eyes’ would seem to imply that they should be on the bridge of our noses! So how is it that Jews worldwide for thousands of years have been putting on Tefillin comprised of black leather boxes with black leather straps, and the same Torah sections written on parchment by a scribe are inserted into the boxes, the Tefillin for the head being placed above the forehead ‘between the eyes’ and not on the bridge of our nose? It is because the details of how to perform the mitzvot have been given together with the Written Law, and that is the Oral Law. The basic principles will never change, while certain details do change according to certain circumstances. For example, Shabbat must be kept at all costs unless there are certain extenuating circumstances such as a medical emergency. All of this is according to the Thirteen Principles by which the Torah is interpreted, which were also handed down with the Written Torah and are of Divine origin as well.

Thus, a true conversion must be carried out according to that same unchangeable body of law, WITH A COMITTMENT TO LIVING ACCORDINGLY.

It is interesting to note that the mitzvah of lighting Chanukah candles is of Rabbinic origin, and not only is it a mitzvah that many Jews who are not overtly affiliated love to perform, but it celebrates religious ‘extremism’! You see, when the Maccabees reentered the Temple after G-d helped them miraculously throw off the Assyrian-Greek yoke, they could have lit the Menorah from oil which had been defiled by the Greeks, according to Halacha. They chose however, to search sincerely for pure oil, which was actually going beyond the letter of the law, and that is when G-d helped them out with another miracle. (True conversion however is basic and not at all going beyond the letter of the law.)

At Mt Sinai we received the Torah in unity, let us continue to practice it in true unity, based on its true principles.

May you have lots of Nachas (spiritual satisfaction) from your daughter and yourself!

Sources

DAAT CENTER - JUDAISM IN THE LIGHT OF KABALA AND CHASSIDUS

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Health, physical and spiritual

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DAAT CENTER - JUDAISM IN THE LIGHT OF KABALA AND CHASSIDUS

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