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By Yisroel Glick

“I mentioned to a client of mine that he might benefit from a conversation with you about somatic healing, can I give him your number so he can reach out?”

This was a voice-note from a friend who is deeply invested in mental health and wellbeing in this community. What followed was a conversation with a well-known, highly-respected shliach, a little older than me and with many achievements I can only hope to merit in my future. It was a story of daily pain and suffering; persistent, unrelenting, and unrecognized by almost anyone around him.

He is not alone in this. Not even close.

The daily pain and suffering are not new, there have always been people among us whose lives have been a never-ending struggle. But there is something that is new. There is a new light shining in the world of internal human struggles (in this article, “internal struggles” refers to internal struggles relevant to functioning and quality of life, not right vs. wrong, torah & mitzvos etc.), a whole new paradigm for understanding the mechanics of internal human struggles, and with the new paradigm come new pathways forward. New pathways that treat these struggles very differently to the conventional approaches, and are they are helping people find relief, freedom, and wellbeing that might never have been possible previously, even with a lifetime of work and treatment.

This brings me to the first point that I want to bring awareness to.

Our thoughts, feelings, and conscious experience have two distinct layers that are very different to each other. One is tangible and very much physical; our brains, our nervous systems, and their physiological processes (electrical activity, chemical processes etc.). The second is intangible; the phenomenon that we experience, the thought, the feeling etc.

A brain is not a thought or a feeling. The brain is a tangible material organ while thoughts and feeling are immaterial intangible phenomena. As distinctly different as these two layers are, in practice there are no boundaries separating between them. The physiology of our brains and nervous systems impact our thoughts, feelings, and experience, and our thoughts feelings, and experience impact the physiology of our brains and nervous systems. Our immaterial and intangible thoughts and experiences have tangible material processes in the body that they cannot be separated from — we can measure the electrical activity in our brains associated with our thoughts and experiences. Our thoughts exists and occur in the physical tissue of our brains. They exist physically in our bodies.

Everything that happens in the mind is happening in the body.

Issues of the mind ARE issues of the body.

Internal human struggles have historically been viewed primarily as issues of the mind — abstract and intangible, and have been treated accordingly by working to address the mind. As appreciation is growing for the fact that issues of the mind are issues of the body, there is an ever growing body of evidence-based treatments that address internal human struggles by focusing on healing  the body, the physical nervous system, rather than just on the mind. Healing modalities that focus on addressing the nervous system and the body more broadly are often referred to as being “somatic” which means “of the body”. They are proving to be extremely powerful, and are bringing relief, wellbeing, and hope to people who have made a serious attempt at trying everything else and given up hope of ever finding relief.

While it may not always have seemed to be the case, healing the issues that cause internal struggles is literally רפואת הגוף — healing the body.

To elaborate and clarify:

The Alter Rebbe talks about something called טבע שני. Each of us has a true original nature that we are born with that that (largely) does not change. But Hashem designed our bodies to have incredible internal wisdom and flexibility including the ability to adapt to circumstances we experience so we are better equipped to face them in the future. These adaptations can be hardwired deeply in the body so they become effectively part of our nature for all intents and purposes, even though they are not technically part of our true original nature. They become our “second nature”.

One example of this is that things that we do repeatedly can be internalized, not just by our minds, but physiologically by our bodies. Our nervous systems internalize behaviors that we engage in repeatedly and can physiologically and anatomically hard-wire these behaviors with new neural pathways making them much more efficient for the future. These are known as habits and are part of our “טבע שני”.

Things that we see, hear, or experience can also be internalized physiologically by our bodies — particularly when we see, hear, or experience  them repeatedly. Our nervous systems can internalize perspectives and narratives based on these experiences, and can physiologically and anatomically hard-wire them so that they too become part of our טבע שני.

Sometimes the ways that our bodies adapt to circumstances can be helpful at the time but later when circumstances have changed and the adaptations that have been hardwired in our bodies continue to be in place they can make life very difficult. These often show up as what we might describe as internal challenges.or “issues of the mind.”

Every internal challenge has a tangible physical layer — the physiological adaptation in the body, the neurological program that has been written into the body. A physiologically hardwired “second nature”.

This second nature is stored in our nervous systems. The beauty of this is that where our true original nature that is encoded in our DNA and can not be edited, our second nature was encoded into our bodies by our bodies during our lifetime, and as long as we are still alive it can be edited in our bodies by our bodies. This is often not a simple process as the adaptations are designed to be permanent, but it is possible, and it can change everything.

When someone’s nervous system has been functioning in a way that made their life extremely difficult, healing the issues that are causing the nervous system to function this way can bring immense relief and can lead to wellbeing and quality of life they might never have dreamed possible.

This healing is not fluffy, imaginary, or woo woo. It is not mystical or imaginary. It is real literal רפואת הגוף.

Most people would not be in a rush to express negativity toward treatment for a broken arm, an infection, or a malignant tumor ר”ל. Most people would not instinctively respond toward a novel treatment for any of these conditions with skepticism and a search to find something wrong to criticize. They are רפואת הגוף, they are simply a necessary part of life. Healing a nervous system of adaptations that are making life difficult and painful is no different, it is equally רפואת הגוף, and equally a simply necessary part of life.

It is understandable that there is hesitation to accept healing approaches that come from outside of Torah. There has been a lot of misrepresentation and sloppy communication. Large harmful movements have been built on shallow misunderstandings of important and powerful ideas, and there has unfortunately been a disturbing amount of incompetence. From encouragement for clients to wallow in helpless victimhood to encouragement for clients to abandon their values or to rush into destroying the most important relationships in their lives, there has been a lot of damage and destruction wrought in the name of “therapy”.

But this does not mean that we must, or even that we should, oppose any healing that does not come from within the תורה.

A healthy person will not usually open a חומש or a תניא to find the solution to leaky pipes or broken appliances. This is not an affront to Torah, it does not indicate that one values plumbers or appliance repair people over Torah. It indicates simply that they are being responsible. It indicates that they are doing what needs to be done to take care of something Hashem has put on their plate, in the way in which it makes practical sense to take care of it effectively.

That being said, while there is nothing wrong with calling a plumber or an appliance repair person, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. You are allowed to ignore a leaky pipe or a broken appliance if you want to. Torah does not say you are obligated to have leak-free plumbing nor that you must have working appliances.

It DOES however say that you are obligated to protect and maintain the health and safety of your body, and that you are obligated to seek the expertise of those most qualified to facilitate healing when something is wrong.

Our values absolutely must come from Torah. That is a given. But there are two things that are true at the same time:

1. Our values absolutely must come from Torah.

2. The technical specifics of how to go about רפואת הגוף are not values.

In contrast, while the technical specifics of רפואת הגוף are not Torah values, the necessity of proactively pursuing רפואת הגוף where necessary and seeking the expertise of those most qualified to help facilitate it, is a Torah value.

This understanding that internal challenges are issues of the body and that healing them is literal רפואת הגוף emphasizes something very important: statements like “we need to look to Torah to find our healing” are categorically incorrect. Likely well-intentioned, but mistaken nonetheless.

Going to a doctor who is best qualified to treat a broken arm, an infection, or a malignant tumor ר”ל is not against Torah values. It IS a Torah value. Pursuing treatment that is best qualified to heal a nervous system that is making one’s life unhealthy, dysfunctional, painful, and possibly putting it in danger, is not against Torah values. It IS a Torah value.

The second thing I urge people to consider before rushing to dismiss healing, is the extent of anguish and suffering that is being experienced. It is both urgent and extremely important that we as a community maximize opportunities and possibilities for people who need healing to heal, and that we minimize anything that might create unnecessary resistance or hesitation.

If you pay attention you will notice people passing you on the street with posture and body language that says loud and clear that their nervous systems have developed a perception that they do not matter, that they have no value, and/or that they have no hope of ever doing or achieving anything worthwhile.

There are people around us who are extraordinarily gifted and talented but who somehow can’t seem to manage to make use of their gifts because their nervous systems have developed a perception that they are not worthy or capable of doing great things.

There are people who are unable to express themselves because their nervous systems have developed a perception that they are too much, or too little, or maybe even both at the same time. That expressing themselves is not worth the cost and therefore behind lock and key.

There are people who are living their entire lives in a state of dissociation. They are never truly present in their own bodies and experiences and are unable to truly connect to the people they love most. Their nervous systems have developed a perception that being present and experiencing everything that comes with that is not worth the cost and therefore behind lock and key.

There are people who fit each of the descriptions above and don’t even realize it. People who can’t recall knowing anything other than pain, so it never crossed their mind that life might not necessarily need to be this painful. People who are so busy working so hard that it never even occurred to them that life may not necessarily need to be quite this difficult. People for whom dissociation is all they know, they don’t even realize they are missing out, that life can potentially be so much more deeply and richly experienced and connected.

These people are very real and they are all around us. They walk past us on the street, they daven with us in shul, and they interact with us at social gatherings, and very often their suffering goes unrecognized by almost everyone around them.

There are people you know who you would never guess struggle just to make it through the day every day.

There are people you know who are in constant anguish and you would never guess it because they have adapted so well to smile through the pain.

And it is almost certain that you know more of these people that you would care to imagine.

The beautiful thing is that there is very real hope. There are new approaches that appreciate the extent to which these issues are רפואת הגוף and they are bringing healing and wellbeing to people who have stopped allowing themselves to hope — for fear of being disappointed . . . again.

There is a light inside the tunnel and it is closer and brighter than it has ever been.

For people who have experienced or observed these approaches of רפואת הגוף producing powerful transformations, who have seen the healing gain momentum relatively quickly and produce real, truly life-changing and sometimes life-saving change, sometimes where years or decades of conventional approaches have not helped satisfactorily, it is understandable that they might naturally feel resentment and be inclined to push back when it seems that someone is reactively attacking or discouraging the healing that changed or saved their life.

It is a given that healing does not supersede Torah of come with a free pass to ignore halacha, obviously. But that truth does not exist in a vacuum. When one’s health or safety is at stake, halacha says that one MUST do whatever is necessary under the circumstances — almost without exception — to restore their health and safety. The Torah obligates us to do מלאכה on Shabbos and to eat cheeseburgers on Yom Kippur if that is what is required. Hashem wants us to be alive, healthy, and safe.

This does not mean that as soon as something falls under the category of health or safety it is exempt from considerations of halacha. It does mean that health and safety have a high priority and outsized influence in determining what it is that is the right thing to do.

Of course questions about whether or not a healing modality is allowed according to Torah are important and they must be asked where relevant.

But PLEASE, before saying things like ‘we need to look to Torah to find our healing’, consider the words carefully. Proceed with caution, and with reverence for the importance Hashem places on the life and wellbeing of every Jew. Take a moment to consider the possibility that misplaced criticism or judgement, however passive or aggressive, might discourage someone from pursuing רפואת הגוף that they desperately need. Consider the possibility that it might prevent someone from finding relief from persistent unrelenting pain and suffering, relief that they desperately need and that Hashem wants them to have.

Consider the possibility that these words could ר”ל cost someone their life.

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