Why do we care if we’re healthy? Why, as health professionals, does it matter to us that the people we care for stay healthy, or get well? Why do my Russian in-laws begin every birthday greeting by wishing me health?
The Hebrew word for “health” is b’riut, from the root bet-resh-alef. When a person sneezes in Hebrew (af-chee!), we wish them la-b’riut, to health. But like a lot of Hebrew roots, bet-resh-alef does double duty. Read the first verse of Genesis: Bereshit ba-ra-a(lef silently). In the beginning, God created. The twentieth century rabbi and philosopher Abraham Isaac Kook once used the word to refer, not to health, but to “the created potentiality of the universe.”
We care about health because when we are well, we are more able to reach for, and sometimes achieve, all that we were meant to do in the world. Even if you’re a little hazy on who the Creator is, you probably believe you have a purpose, a goal, or a role to play in the world. Illness often stands in the way of all that potential, preventing us from fulfilling the role we are cast in. Sometimes we have trouble finding that purpose, or doubt that it exists – and in those times the role of a healing professional might be to help us discover it, to affirm that we are important to the universe. The great modern thinker who proposed that human beings were “meaning-seeking creatures” wasn’t a religious leader – he was psychiatrist Viktor Frankl.
This seems like heavy stuff to remember when you are struggling to keep up with your workload in the breakneck world of twenty-first century medicine. In fact, you may not even believe that you have a purpose any longer, other than to check the boxes that someone else deems important. You may have burned out so much that you have trouble recognizing the humanity in your patients at all. And if you’re a patient sitting in our waiting room, you may question how much help we can really be after all.
If you identify with any of those struggles, or are looking for tools to put the idea of helping real people achieve their real purpose through better health, then I hope you’ll listen to my new podcast. It’s called Healing People, Not Patients, airing on the Doctor Podcast Network beginning October 21. I’ll be speaking to friends and colleagues from all different realms of the healing professions and beyond about ways to put the soul back in healthcare. Episode 1 is a conversation with my friend Elisha Waldman, a pediatric oncologist and palliative care physician and author of This Narrow Space. We’ll talk about how healthcare feels like it’s become its own religion – and whether we should be worried about that.
My prescription includes heavy doses of Jewish wisdom, but with light-hearted humor, music, and clear explanations to help minimize the side effects. I recommend taking it on a weekly schedule and subscribing so your refills always come on time, but if you miss a dose, it’s OK to take two (or more!) at once.
Watch this blog for more updates, follow me on Instagram @healerswholisten, and watch the Podcast page on this site for new episodes. Download and follow wherever fine podcasts are streamed.
