This groundbreaking volume examines the spiritual failures of our current healing environment-issues from too much medical intervention to not enough personal and spiritual care-and explores how Midrash can help you see beyond the physical aspects of healing to tune in to your spiritual source.
Pushing the boundaries of Jewish knowledge, physicians, rabbis, social workers, psychologists and philosophers investigate the role of midrashic thinking in addressing seemingly intractable social and personal issues, and present Jewish responses to burnout within the medical community. Topics discussed include:
The role of metaphors and parables in the world of Jewish healing
How religious tradition can speak to the modern clinical scientist
Seeking out the hidden causes of our behavior
The role of reality and our understanding of human experience in addressing such questions
as genetics, end of life and medical practice
Drawing from literature, personal experience, and the foundational texts of Judaism, these celebrated thinkers encourage us to listen with a midrashic ear and see with a midrashic eye as we face the challenge of cultivating a spiritual community within the medical arena.
This anthology, a first in the Jewish world, explores the Jewish tradition for providing comfort
in times of illness and spiritual perspectives for the inevitable sufferings with which we live.
Scholars, teachers, artists and activists examine the aspects of our mortality and the important
distinctions between curing and healing.
With careful consideration, and embedded with passion, these celebrated thinkers
push the boundaries of Jewish knowledge, investing the search for healing with new
ideas and new ways to look at old texts. Through unique, sometimes controversial,
perspectives, they 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. Contributors include:
This anthology of original essays by leading thinkers in the field gathers together in one place voices from diverse theological
and practical commitments. Unlike other publications on Jewish bioethics, it adopts an explicitly pluralistic stance. The book
addresses tension between the "quality of life" and the "sanctity of life" issues, and will be of interest to
lay readers, undergraduate students of bioethics, and rabbis.
