THE 12 STEPS: A JEWISH ANGII
A great deal has been written — from Maimonides to
modern thinkers — about recovery. The following is a
list of the 12 Steps followed by Jewish commentary, both
biblical and contemporary.
Step 1 -- We admitted we were powerless over
alcohol — that our lives had become unmanage-
able.
Step 6 — We're entirely ready to have God re-
move all these defects of character.
"On Yom Kippur, I would sit there with a terrible
hangover, a part of me praying that God would let me
live another year, a part of me hoping that God would
let me die." — 12 Jewish Steps To Recovery
Step 7 — Humbly asked Him to remove our
shortcoming&
"Spiritual guidance directed at improving one's sense
of worth is thus helpful in facilitating the first step and
"God blew into his nostrils a spirit of life, and man
initiating recovery." — Rabbi Abraham Twerski
became a living being." Genesis (11:7)
"The 'we' is important. Both Judaism and AA em
phasize community and the support it offers each mem-
ber." --- Twelve Jewish Steps To Recovery
11-.1 . - 0:111901s1 $. BY CWARCULUS
Confessions before God which include:
1. Naming the specific sin
2. Statement of regret at having sinned
3. Expression of shame felt at having sinned
4. Pledge not to repeat the same sin — Mai-
monides' The Laws of Repentance
Step 2 Came to believe that a pow-
er greater than ourselves could restore
us to sanity.
"The Talmud states that God's assistance
to man is indispensable. 'Assistance' implies
that one is taking some action but needs help.
A person must do everything within his pow-
er to make his life constructive and produc-
tive." — Rabbi Twerski
THE DETR OI T JEWIS H NEWS
Step 4 — Made a searching and fear-
less moral inventory of ourselves.
"One-must repeatedly confide in another person,
whether spiritual counselor or trusted friend, all im-
proper thoughts and impulses which come to one's heart
and mind." -- Rabbi Elimelech of Lizensk, writing in
his Brief List for Proper Living
Step 11 -- Sought through prayer and
meditation to improve our conscious con-
tact with God as we understood Him,
praying only for the knowledge of His
will for us and the power to carry that
out.
"Make His will your will, and negate your
will before His." — Ethics of the Fathers
"At first, you may be shy when it comes to
talking about your recovery or your relation-
ship to God through Judaism. It takes time.
But it's important to talk about the 12 Steps
in the context of Torah. Listen to the words of
our tradition: `If three have eaten at the same
table and have not spoken words of Torah, it's
as if they had made sacrifices to dead idols.'
God's will is not in their thoughts. 'But if three
have eaten at the same table and the words of
Torah were spoken, it's as if they had eaten at
the table of God.'"— Pirke Avot 3:3 as writ-
ten in Twelve Jewish Steps to Recovery
Step 3 --- Made a decision to turn our
will and our lives over to the care of God
as we understood Him.
Step 5 -- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and
to another human being the exact nature of our
wrongs.
"Taking a personal inventory on Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur is not sufficient. This must be an ongoing
process. The need for recognizing a wrong and prompt-
ly admitting it is stressed by the Talmud. The longer
one delays in admitting a sin, the more apt he is to ex-
plain away and justify his behavior, until the sin may
even appear as the right course of action." — Rabbi
Twerski
Step 12 -- Having had a spiritual awak-
ening as a result of these steps, we tried
to carry this message to alcoholics and
to practice these principles in all our af-
fairs.
"A person's temptation becomes more in-
tense each day, and were it not that God helps
him, it would be impossible for him to resist"
--- Talmud (Sukkah, 52b)
"Live by the commandments; do not die by
them." --- Talmud, Sanhedrin, 7A
"Be honest and open with yourself Ac-
knowledge what you have found and move
forward. But remember Only you know what
you have found. You will have to do something
about it -- but you don't have to tell others
until you are ready." — 12 Jewish Steps To
Recovery
Step 10 — Continued to take personal inven-
tory, and when we were wrong, promptly admit-
ted it.
Step 8 -- Made a list of all persons we had
harmed and became willing to make amends to
them all.
Step 9 — Made direct amends to such people
wherever possible, except when to do so would
injure them or others.
The Shulchan Aruch, or Code of Jewish Law, states
that all the atonement possible is ineffective if an in-
dividual has harmed another, unless forgiveness from
the victim has been sought.
The Twelve Steps are reprinted with per-
mission of Alcoholics Anonymous World Ser-
vices, Inc. Permission to reprint the Twelve
Steps does not mean that AA has reviewed or
approved the contents of this publication, nor
that AA agrees with the views expressed here-
in. AAis a program of recovery from alcoholism
only — use of the Twelve Steps in connection
with programs and activities which are pat-
terned after AA, but which address other prob-
lems, or in any other non-AA context, does not imply
otherwise.
All excerpts from Twelve Jewish Steps To Recovery:
A Personal Guide to Turning From Alcoholism and
Other Addictions , by Rabbi Kerry M. Olitzky and Stu-
art A. Copans, Jewish Lights Publishing, 1991. $12.95
plus $3.50 s/h. P.O. Box 237 Woodstock, VT 05091. Per-
mission granted by Jewish Lights Publishing.