Using the traditional Passover seder and its text, the Haggadah, as a template, From Illness to Exodus explores illness and healing—the narrow space, and the way out.
From Illness to Exodus invites the ill person and healer alike to address hard questions with compassion, curiosity, and a mature faith
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Is it enough to say the right thing without feeling it – or to say the wrong thing with the right emotion? Do I have a God complex or impostor syndrome? How do I avoid the extremes and practice with both humility and confidence?
Make today different from all other days – what will you do to achieve this? What stories do we tell about our bad habits to justify them to ourselves? How might we reframe them to make them holier?
When you think about modern plagues, do you think of them as outside forces that are affecting you, punishment for societal ills, or things that you’re doing that harm others?
3,000 years of Jewish wisdom, 3,000 people seeking healing, and one nice Jewish doctor with messy, curly hair trying to use one to make sense of the other. Take two stone tablets and call me in the morning?
This week feels a little like 2020. Everyone staying indoors. The few people outside wearing masks and hurrying for cover. The only difference is that other people aren’t the hazard this time – the outdoors is the danger.
The world is literally on fire, and the air is literally suffocating us. It can feel like too much effort to even cry for help.
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Your chatbot will gladly compose a prayer for you.
Provide enough detail, and that prayer can be personalized to include your name, your spouse and children’s names, the specific needs you have for that day, and even some relevant scriptural references that you will find meaningful and coherent with your tradition.
You have, in short, a GenAI chaplain. Or, if you’ll forgive me, “chat lain.”
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One person’s inspiration can be another person’s undoing. My regular readers and listeners know I draw deep insight, and comfort, from the Exodus story. But what about people who know they are never getting out of their narrow places? Do they find that narrative uplifting, mocking, or just crushing?
On Dr. Tyler Johnson’s podcast, The Doctor’s Art, he asks me that very question. Judge for yourself whether I did a good job of answering it. I certainly found the attempt humbling and gratifying at the same time. We covered a lot of ground: why I don’t see the “science vs. religion” divide quite as starkly as some others; why I think religion is actually the source of a lot of the good we do in modern medicine; what one lesson I might teach other physicians from the Exodus story; and why the main reason I ended up in Med-Peds and in primary care is just plain indecision. Have a listen.