Mental Health Awareness Shabbat and Jewish Penicillin by Rabbi Sandra Kviat
January is a dark month, it is easy to feel or fall into isolation. Even the Torah texts reflect this darkness, with the story of the plagues in Egypt, and the ancient rabbis focusing on the ninth plague of darkness, as a special darkness, less to do with the physical lack of seeing, and more with the state of a person’s mental health and the darkness of depression.
This year the Mental Health Awareness Shabbat (MHAS) falls on Parashat Va’eira which is why we moved our Friday night to this week. In Parashat Va’eira, Moshe tells the Jewish nation that their woes have ended and that redemption is at hand. This should have been a time of elation, but the Israelites were too overwhelmed by their own stresses to absorb this message. They had lost hope and could not imagine a positive future for themselves. Stresses in life may be inevitable but it is comforting to have hope that the future can bring our own personal redemption and in turn can bring us from darkness into light.
The theme of the MHAS 2023 is “Community”. How does our sense of community help or hinder our mental health? In what ways can we support one another in our community?
One of my favourite readings from the morning service is the opening meditation that says “Eternal God, we come before you surrounded by members of our community. With them we share our happiness, and it becomes greater; our troubles, and they become smaller” (Siddur Lev Chadash, p. 122). At a time of great stresses, sometimes the most important thing we need is company, connection and belonging, in a place that has a longevity that outspans the school community, our work colleagues, or our neighbours. A place that is more than the sum of its parts. We come together to celebrate happy moments in our lives, but we also gather and support when we suffer losses. Being able to say kaddish at the time of a yahrzeit, remembering a loved one and honouring them by participating in a service with a reading, is not something that can happen anywhere else. That’s one of the ways we help each other, when the times are dark.
Come in from the cold, and get a dose of real Jewish penicillin (no, not chicken soup) but togetherness, company and connection. You are of course welcome to bring some vegetarian chicken soup if that helps. And to help lift the winter blues, we are also trying out new prayers and readings.