Category: Healing from Illness

Although it rarely makes a difference to me, most people feel more comfortable knowing how to pronounce my name. It's "gar-ee"—the first syllable rhymes with star, or scar. I have three scars, to be exact, and they are mine.

There is a plague of darkness that has fallen not only on our land but upon the world

Live Long and Prosper

I needed a way to spiritually acknowledge and accept these transitional moments which are a mixed blessing.

It is revealing that quite regularly women tell me they prefer not to feel like a side of beef being kashered in her immersion process.

The thief does not need a key. The thief does not show up on cameras because it is already inside of her. 

They kept telling me that once we got through the terrible summer, the “summer of yuck” as we called it, that I would find light, happiness and health. They tried to reassure me, as we checked each week of chemo off the calendar, that I was one step closer to relief, to a happy ending, to life after cancer. They promised – everyone promised – that I’d feel better, that I’d resume work and parenting and everything in between, and that I’d be able to put cancer far behind me and move on.

In Kabbalah, the current month on the Hebrew calendar, Iyar, is the month of healing. Its spelling—aleph, yud, yud, resh—corresponds to the first letters of the words “Ani Yud-Yud Rofecha,” “I am G-d your Healer.” As I prepare for the Jewish Healing Circle I lead each month at my synagogue, I am struck by what a powerful healing tool it has become.

I knew that if ever I needed to be on the receiving end of pastoral support, I would want my amazing circle of close friends and spirit buddies around me. But I didn’t know how much I would need the blessing of their deep presence until the nightmare unfolded.