Jewish Psychosomatics

Jewish Psychosomatics

Organs of the Body Our Sages taught: “The kidneys advise, the heart accepts, the tongue divides, the mouth gathers, the esophagus conveys food, the larynx gives passage to the voice, the lung absorbs moisture, the liver becomes angry, the gallbladder injects a drop into it and calms it, the spleen laughs, the goiter grinds, the stomach dozes, and the nose remains alert. But if the stomach is alert while the nose sleeps, a person begins to decay from within and dies.” Three “Three love: the heart, the ears, and the mouth. Three hate: the liver, the bile, and the tongue.” Eyelids and Eyelashes From the Holy Zohar we learn that the closing of the eyelids results from the dominance of the “left side,” while the eyelashes serve as a curtain to lessen the influence of the left attribute. This is also stated in Tehillim (11:4): “His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of man.” How can the eyelids test—if their function is to close the eyes? When the Almighty “closes His eyes,” this is a period of His concealment, as a result of which judgments are revealed and trials arise.   Dermatology The origin of many skin diseases remains a mystery. Dermatology is one of the most mysterious fields of medicine. According to Judaism, the skin is the boundary separating a person from the outside world. It reflects outwardly what is happening within—particularly in a person’s psyche and soul. Fasting Jewish teachings state that the body nourishes the brain. But during a fast, the opposite occurs: the brain nourishes the body. (Shaar Ruach HaKodesh, 25.) This brings a person to a higher level of consciousness, (mochin de-gadlut).   Toothache Toothache may indicate to a person that he is not fulfilling the commandments associated sufficiently well with speech or with kashrut.   Illnesses—Violation of the Holy Days According to Kabbalah, violating the joy (oneg) of Shabbat is punished by illness—“nega”; violating the festival of Atzeret brings about the illness of tzaraat, or difficult times come upon the world (et tzar).   Abdominal Pain Once, someone came home from outside feeling pain in his abdomen. He said that he understood this to mean that money was on its way to him, alluding to the verse: “And your offspring from your innards, like coins.” (Isaiah 48:19). And indeed, that is what happened—money arrived by mail.   Shir HaShirim “All medicine in the world is connected with ‘Shir HaShirim’.” (from the book “The Secret of the Jewish Sages,” vol. 6)   32 Teeth The Arizal explains in “Shaar Taamei HaMitzvot”, on Parashat Eikev: “Throughout the meal, or at least while eating a kezayit of bread over which ‘Hamotzi’ was recited, a person should mentally contemplate the following words: “The purification and selection [of the Sparks of Holiness from the food] take place through the 32 teeth, corresponding to the 32 Paths of Wisdom (‘Sefer Yetzirah’), for ‘everything is purified through thought.’” These teeth grind and crush the food, thereby separating the edible from the inedible. This is comparable to millstones. They grind the grain, separating the chaff and bran (that is, the husks, kelipot) from the flour (that is, the food), which before grinding formed an inseparable unity.” 31 Pairs of Spinal Nerves The Holy Zohar (on Vayakhel) notes that the 35 words of the passage “And the creation of heaven and earth was completed…” correspond to the 35 repetitions of the Name of G-d—Elohim. This is precisely where they occur in the Torah: 32 times before this passage and three more times within the passage itself. The 32 repetitions correspond to the 32 Paths of Wisdom (Netivot HaChochmah). The number 32 also corresponds to the human spine, from which 31 pairs of nerves emerge. Adding one for the spine itself, we arrive at 32 channels of nervous energy that form the foundation of human existence. The source of this energy is the three parts of the brain, corresponding to the three sefirot—Chochmah (Wisdom), Binah (Understanding), and Da'at (Knowledge). These, in turn, are connected with the three primary Divine attributes: Kindness (Chesed), Strictness (Gevurah), and Compassion (Rachamim). Grapes A cluster of grapes resembles a heart in shape, while each berry resembles a red blood cell. This is consistent with the fact that wine and grapes strengthen the cardiovascular system. King David said of this in Tehillim: “Wine that gladdens the heart.” (Tehillim 104:15) In Aramaic, “wine” is “chamar”—חמר; the gematria of this word is 248, equal to the number of organs in the human body. We see from this that wine penetrates every organ of the body. Wheat—חטה—has a gematria of 22, as does the word טובה “goodness.” It is mentioned 29 times in Tanakh. “Wheat bread is Chesed, and through Chesed He nourishes the flesh.” (Biurei Aggadot, Afikei Yam, Kiddushin 31b) The attribute of Chesed is characterized by a desire to spread and influence those around it, bestowing its goodness upon the world. The same is true of wheat: its grains nourish and sustain a person. Chesed, through which this world was created, is often compared to the skeleton, the supporting framework of our body. Wheat, meanwhile, is the basic food of humanity, nourishing and sustaining the body. In modern Hebrew, the word “wheat” is written חיטה “chิตa,” while in the Torah it appears without the letter י “yud”; instead, it has the “hiriq” vowel, which likewise denotes the sound “i.” The letters ח and י form the word חי “chai” (life). But when the word חיטה (chita) loses the letter י, wheat immediately loses its connection to the Source of Life—the Almighty. Perhaps because wheat is associated with the Tree of Knowledge, through which man became mortal, the word “life” is absent from the name of this grain, serving as a kind of allusion to death, the antonym of that word. This may be why so many people today suffer from wheat intolerance. In addition, there is a notable similarity between the words חיטה “wheat” (chita) and חטה “sin” (chet): by sinning, a person, as it were, severs himself from the Source of Life. Pomegranate It is interesting to note that the internal structure of a pomegranate resembles the structure of the mammary glands. Israeli scientists have demonstrated that pomegranate extracts contain powerful antioxidants that destroy most breast cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed. According to research by Ephraim Lansky, pomegranate seed oil can replace estrogen, which is often prescribed to women during menopause to prevent cardiovascular disease or osteoporosis. Its components selectively destroy estrogen-dependent cancer cells. These studies show that pomegranate juice extract, the peel, and pomegranate seed oil have the ability to suppress cancer cells. Pomegranates contain large amounts of flavonoids, which effectively combat free radicals responsible for the formation of cancer cells. Therefore, it is very important for those at risk to drink pomegranate juice. Olives Rabbi Yochanan said: “Olives can cause a person to forget everything he learned over 70 years, while olive oil helps a person remember everything he learned over 70 years.” (Horayot 13b) Therefore, the Land of Israel is traditionally praised not for the olives that grow there, but for the oil, which restores to a person the years of Torah learning he has forgotten. Rabbeinu Bachya explains that olives lead to forgetfulness because, unlike other trees, the olive tree has no heartwood (indeed, a cross-section of an olive tree does not display the familiar ring pattern). Therefore, olives, as it were, “lock” the heart and cause a person to forget what he previously learned. (R. Bachya on Bereishit 34:1) (Material collected by the site from holy Jewish sources)