Hebraic Musing – Do
Jews really have a prayer for everything?
Yes, they even have a prayer for your frequent
daily activity, visiting the toilet. I’d
seen it in Siddurs, Jewish prayer books, and found this exceptional explanation
from a Jew, Dr. Kenneth M.Prager, M.D:
“When I was an elementary school student
in yeshiva (Jewish parochial school)
… I used to find amusing a sign that was posted just outside the bathroom. It
was an ancient Jewish blessing, commonly referred to as the Asher
Yatzar benediction, to be recited after one relieved oneself. For grade
school children, there could be nothing more strange or ridiculous than to link
to acts of micturition and defecation with holy words that mentioned God's
name. Blessings were reserved for
prayers, for holy days, or for thanking God for food or for some act of
deliverance, but surely not for a bodily function that evoked smirks and
giggles.
“It took me several decades to realize
the wisdom that lay behind this blessing that was composed by Abayei, a fourth-century
Babylonian rabbi. … Abayei said, when one comes out of a privy he should say:
“Blessed is He who has
formed man in wisdom and created in him many orifices and many cavities. It is
obvious and known before Your throne of glory that if one of them were to be
ruptured or one of them blocked, it would be impossible for a man to survive
and stand before You. Blessed are You that heals all flesh and does wonders.”
… “It was not until my second year of
medical school that I first began to understand the appropriateness of this
short prayer. Pathophysiology brought home to me the terrible consequences of
even minor aberrations in the structure and function of the human body. … I began to no longer take for granted the normalcy
of my trips to the bathroom. Instead, I started to realize how many things had
to operate just right for these minor interruptions of my daily routine to run
smoothly. … after seeing patients whose
lives revolved around their dialysis machines and others with colostomies and
urinary catheters, I realized how wise the rabbi had been. … Over
the years, reciting the Asher Yatzarhas become for me and
opportunity to offer thanks not just for the proper functioning of my excretory
organs, but for my overall good health. … Could Abayei … have foreseen that
"blockage" of the "cavity," or lumen, of the coronary
artery would lead to the commonest cause of death in industrialized countries …
“There was one unforgettable patient whose story reinforced the truth
and beauty of the Asher Yatzar for me forever. Josh was a 20-year-old student who sustained
an unstable fracture of his third and fourth cervical vertebrae in a motor
vehicle crash. He nearly died from his injury and required emergency intubation
and ventilatory support. He was initially totally quadriplegic but for weak
flexion of his right biceps.
“A long and difficult period of
stabilization and rehabilitation followed. There were promising signs of
neurological recovery over the first few months that came suddenly and
unexpectedly: movement of a finger here, flexion of a toe there, return of
sensation here, adduction of a muscle group there. With incredible courage,
hard work, and an excellent physical therapist, Josh improved day by day. In
time, … he was able to walk slowly with
a leg brace and a cane. But Josh continued to require intermittent
catheterization. I know only too well the problems and perils this young man
would face for the rest of his life because of a neurogenic bladder. The
urologists were very pessimistic about his chances for not requiring
catheterization. They had not seen this occur after a spinal cord injury of
this severity.
“Then
the impossible happened. I was there the day Josh no longer required a
urinary catheter. I thought of Abayei's Asher Yatzar
prayer. Pointing out that I could not imagine a more meaningful
scenario for its recitation, I suggested to Josh, who was also a yeshiva
graduate, that he say the prayer. He agreed. As he recited the ancient bracha,
tears welled in my eyes. … Josh
is my son.”
Thank
you Dr. Kenneth M. Prager for sharing.
Point to ponder
Do
you yearn for some way to express gratitude for your good health?
Yosef a.k.a. Joe Brusherd December
30, 2014
Books author “Hebraic Insights”; “Biblical Marriage”; “Musings v.1 – A Victorious Life”
Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings”
Yosef1@cox.net or www.InsightsByYosef.com
Source: http://www.torah.org/features/firstperson/everythingablessing.html
Books author “Hebraic Insights”; “Biblical Marriage”; “Musings v.1 – A Victorious Life”
Weekly e-mails “Hebraic Musings”
Yosef1@cox.net or www.InsightsByYosef.com
Source: http://www.torah.org/features/firstperson/everythingablessing.html
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