Your Email:

Friend's Email:

Note: (optional)

Subject:

Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/37875/full/37875/healing-the-body-also-means-healing-the-soul/ <br /><br /> <b>Healing the body also means healing the soul</b> <br /> Thursday, April 23, 2009 | by rabbi larry raphael <br /><br /><p><em>Tazria-Metzora</em></p> <p><em>Leviticus 12:1-15:33</em></p> <p><em>II Kings 7:3-7:20</em></p> <p><br />This Shabbat reminds us that body and soul are one, and therefore we should not compartmentalize a human being who is ill. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, “If the body is the Temple</p> <p>of the Lord, then the physician is a priest who ministers to the Temple.”</p> <p>To illustrate that position I share a story from Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, a professor at the UCSF School of Medicine who has done much to make sure we understand the sacredness of medicine.</p> <p>“Immy was a frail little girl, the only child of older parents. At 3, she was only as big as the average 18-month-old. She was born with a hole in her heart and a badly formed heart valve. Only the most careful medical management had enabled her to live until she was old enough to undergo extensive surgery.</p> <p><img alt="rabbi larry raphael" class="left" height="200" src="http://jweekly.com/images/uploads/column_pics/torah/rabbi larry raphael.jpg" title="rabbi larry raphael" width="126" />“When the time for her surgery finally came, her parents were understandably anxious. As the senior pediatric resident, I met with Immy’s parents and afterward, I took them with me to the children’s ward to examine Immy.</p> <p>“Immy’s heart sounds were not good and I marveled at her endurance. As I helped her dress, I noticed a St. Christopher medal pinned to her undershirt. ‘What’s this?’ I asked her parents. Her mother told me that a relative had made a special trip to Rome to have this medal blessed and then had dipped it into the healing water at Lourdes. ‘We feel that it will protect her,’ she said.</p> <p>“Immy spent the next day undergoing tests, and I saw her a couple more times. The medal had been moved from her undershirt to her hospital gown. It seemed so important to her parents that I mentioned it in passing to the cardiac surgery resident. He gave me a cynical smile. ‘To each his own,’ he said.</p> <p>“I made a note to be sure to take the medal off Immy’s gown before she went into surgery. But by the time I reached the floor, Immy had been taken upstairs. The surgery lasted almost 12 hours, and things had not gone well. Immy had lost a lot of blood. She was on a respirator in the intensive care unit.</p> <p>“The next day, her mother told me that Immy’s gown had been removed in the operating room and thrown into the hospital laundry. The medal was gone. Concerned, I called the surgery resident and told him what had happened.</p> <p>“ ‘Perhaps you should tell the surgeon [Dr. X] who operated on her,’ I said. He began to laugh. ‘Don’t be absurd,’ he said. ‘Why would you want to bother a world-famous surgeon over something as silly as that?’</p> <p>“That night I kept thinking about the lost medal and what Immy’s parents had told me about it. Around 2 a.m., I took some paper and wrote a note to</p> <p>Dr. X, telling him what had happened and how important the medal was to Immy’s family. I taped it to Dr. X’s office door.</p> <p>“When I returned to the hospital for the evening shift, I stopped by the Intensive Care Unit to examine Immy. When I leaned over to listen to her chest, I noticed a medal pinned to her hospital gown. Turning to her parents with relief, I asked: ‘How were you able to find another one so quickly?’</p> <p>“ ‘Oh, no,’ her mother said. ‘This is the one that was lost. Dr. X came in this afternoon and brought it to us.’</p> <p>“The next morning, the surgery resident told me how the medal had been found. On the previous day, Dr. X had made his rounds accompanied by the young surgeons in training.</p> <p>“Instead of ending his rounds at the ICU, he had taken them all to the laundry. He explained what had happened, and then he and his residents went through the laundry from the day before, looking for the gown. It took them a while, but they found it, neatly folded, with the medal still attached.</p> <p>“ ‘Did Dr. X say anything when he asked you to do this?’ I asked. ‘Oh, yes,’ the resident replied. Surrounded by the sheets and towels, Dr. X told the young surgeons-in-training that the reason he was making them go through the laundry was so they would learn that it is as important for a doctor to care about the souls that are entrusted to them as it is to care about their bodies.”</p> <p>This story reminds us to believe in the people who believe in St. Christopher medals. The doctor was wise enough to understand that calming the fears of a family is also a part of good medicine, and that healing a soul is as important as healing a body.</p> <p><strong>Rabbi Larry Raphael </strong>is the senior rabbi of Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco.</p> <p> </p>

Please enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below: