However, I must object to the expression “respect for Halacha.” Healing for a Yid must not only be in line with halacha, but should be BASED on his or her connection to Hashem and His Torah. As the Rebbe writes in so many letters that is the only thing that will give a Yid true meaning.

Sometimes various healing techniques are helpful to get a person unstuck, but ultimately it must be connected to his or her essence as a Yid with a neshama.

Thank you for your insightful article. I appreciate your emphasis on the importance of adhering to Halacha and the intrinsic link every Yid has with the Torah. I wholeheartedly agree that we must not compromise Halacha in our quest for healing.

However, I believe that healing and Torah can coexist harmoniously, and this synergy can actually facilitate a return to Yiddishkeit for many. I am a practitioner of a specific healing technique that has been developed over the past 30 years. This method does not involve talk therapy, medication, stones, or mantras; rather, it taps into the innate healing power that Hashem has created within our bodies.

From my experience, when individuals undergo genuine healing, they naturally gravitate closer to Hashem. Often, it is not the rejection of Hashem or the Torah that leads people away, but rather the pain associated with their trauma within the context of Torah. Many people carry emotional burdens that stem from negative experiences related to their Jewish upbringing or community.

By addressing and alleviating this trauma, we can help individuals reconnect with their true essence, wich is the connection to Hashem. When the pain is removed, the desire to return to Hashem and the mitzvos reveals itself.

I believe that the right techniques—when executed with respect for Halacha—can serve as a bridge, allowing those who have distanced themselves from Yiddishkeit to rediscover their connection to the Torah without compromising its values.

Thank you for opening this important dialogue, and I hope my perspective contributes to the ongoing conversation about healing.

Warm regards,
Nissim Forma.

You missed the whole point! The issue is not whether true healing overrides halacha, which it sometimes does. The issue is that isn’t healing at all!

This is exactly like the argument to give away land of Eretz Yisroel for “pikuach nefesh” and that it overrides the kedusha etc. The Rebbe’s response: That is irrelevant! Of course pikuach nefesh overrides yishuv Eretz Yisroel etc., but giving away land won’t bring peace! In fact, the way to saving lives is by holding on to the land!

Going away from who we truly are as Yidden will not bring a person lasting healing. He may feel temporary catharsis, but it will come back and he will be in a never ending spiral of feeding his need for “healing.” If he only tapped in to his neshama, he will feel energized with meaning and purpose and happiness.

The same Torah that by whose rules we “guide and propel the process” of living our lives also includes the rule of doing what you have to do to take care of your mental and emotional health, no different than not putting on tefillin because you’re in a coma or eating on a fast day because you medically have to. That’s not against the Torah–that IS the “internal and eternal power of the Torah”!

Ask any mental-health professional, or anyone on the front lines of OTD teenagers, and they’ll confirm this: Healing IS Torah, IS the Rotzon Hashem, and IS what is needed so that people in pain (physical/emotional/spiritual) can reconnect with Hashem and His Torah in a healthy way. The thousands of young people who over the last several decades have left Torah and Mitzvos altogether were not at all helped when told the very thing this article essentially pushes: “Just be frum and everything will work out!” False. The issues are not being addressed.

Yes, to be perfectly clear, I am saying that sometimes, for some people, not being so frum–or not being frum at all–because they need “healing” actually IS the way back to frumkeit, the same way a frum yid with a long beard in a medically-induced coma comes back to putting on tefilin and davening and learning daily by being guided by his doctors through the coma. No one but a fool would wake him up and say, “Hey, Reb Yid, it’s almost past Zman Tefilah–you need to put on tefillin now!” It’s part of the healing process. First they need to heal, and then let Torah and mitzvos back into their lives, all while developing the real Ahavas Hashem and Yiras Hashem they never had in the first place.

To borrow the Frierdiker Rebbe’s moshol here, telling people burning alive in flames that you can’t see, that “healing” (and the resulting heteirim/kulos) is not al pi Torah, is like hosing them down with kerosene because “I want to save them!”