Commun i ty

Spirituality

Clockwise from top left:
Dr. Benson looks on via video screen while Rabbi
Gottlieb and Steven Keteyian stand at lecterns.
2000 Tree of Life winners Brenda and Howard
Rosenberg.

1999 Tree of Life winners Larry and Rosalind
Nemer, Rabbi Eric Krohner, founder of Ohr
Somayach Detroit and Ohr Somayach International's
programming arm Jerusalem Vision, and Larry
Garon, Ohr Somayach Detroit president.

Rabbi Gottlieb

Ohr Somayach forum
analyzes effects of
prayer on health and
healing.

SUSAN TAWIL
Special to the Jewish News

D

r. Herbert Benson set the
tone for the evening's pro-
gram by stating emphatical-
ly: "There is no doubt that
belief can heal."
Benson, author of The Relaxation
Response and other books exploring the
mind's power to counter the harmful
effects of stress, addressed a standing-
room-only crowd at the Ohr Somayach
Detroit/Jerusalem Vision videoconfer-
ence on Nov. 21 at the Jewish
Community Center in West Bloomfield.
More than 400 people, including
many medical personnel, drove through
snow flurries to honor "Tree of Life"
award recipients Howard and Brenda
Rosenberg of Bloomfield Hills, and to
participate in the program, sponsored by
the Rosenbergs, on "The Impact of
Prayer on Health and Healing."

Benson, founding president of the
Mind/Body Medical Institute and asso-
ciate professor of medicine at Harvard
Medical School, spoke from Boston to
the audience in Detroit via videoconfer-
ence. Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb, senior lec-
turer of Ohr Somayach/Jerusalem, and
Steven J. Keteyian, director of preventive
cardiology at the Henry Ford Heart and
Vascular Institute in Detroit, participat-
ed at the JCC.
Benson's clinical research confirms
that patients who utilized what he
calls "the Faith Factor" —
Relaxation Response meditation
combined with belief — had fewer
medical symptoms of stress. "We [in
the medical community] must do
our best and cover all the bases —
not only medicines and surgeries,
but self-help, too," he said.
Keteyian said the beneficial effects of
prayer on conditions such as high blood
pressure, anxiety, immune suppression

Rabbi Michoel Schoen of Ohr Somayach Jerusalem,
Rabbi Krohner, and Rabbi David Shapero, executive
director of Ohr Somayach Detroit.
dialogue between one's soul and
God. He explained that it is not
God who needs our prayer, but
rather, we ourselves.
"Every sincere prayer is
answered," said Rabbi Gottlieb,
"but not always right away, or in
the way we expect."
When questioned about the
purpose of illness, Rabbi
Gottlieb said the "jolt" of illness
often causes people to question
their life priorities.
For skeptics, he suggested a
and depression are well-documented.
"willing suspension of disbelief" in an
He noted that the Henry Ford Health
effort to try prayer as a "working
System's current medical approach is
hypothesis-"
more multifaceted as it treats the
"whole person."
Positive Feedback
In the field of medical rehabilita-
The audience seemed supportive of the
tion, "the mind/body connection is
views expressed by the speakers.
part of the program now," he said.
Nancy Levin of Birmingham, a
Keteyian observed that "science
research coordinator at the Karmanos
is frustrated because they can't
Cancer Institute in Detroit, said
quantify prayer." The question for
Karmanos
has found prayer useful in
most researchers, he felt, is: "If we
support
groups.
can't define how it works, how can
Teri Racey, a physician's assistant and
we say it works?" Ultimately,
assistant
professor at University of
Keteyian saw the medical field "tak-
Detroit
Mercy
and at Providence
ing small steps toward integrating
Hospital
in
Southfield,
said she runs
clinical medicine with prayer and
retreats
and
does
work
with
"mindful-
healing."
ness meditation" for patients with cancer
and chronic illness.
Inner Connection
"It dramatically works," she said.
Rabbi Gottlieb asserted that Jewish
Honoree Brenda Rosenberg said she
sources have long known of the con-
hopes to couple Benson's Relaxation
nection of the mind, or soul, and
Response methods with "creative
the body, and emphasized that man
imagery" in order to help others.
is not merely a physical entity, but a
A former fashion consultant,
spiritual one. Benson's research into
Rosenberg now runs an intercessory
the benefits of prayer, Rabbi
prayer group (prayer on behalf of others)
Gottlieb felt, begs the question of
with senior citizens at the Lillian and
what is to be done with the results.
Samuel Hechtman Jewish Apartments II
Granted that prayer helps healing,
on the Applebaum Jewish Community
"What are we going to do with this
Campus in West Bloomfield.
new insight?" he asked. "What do
Rosenberg said she and her husband
we live for?" he asked.
strongly believe in the power of prayer.
The rabbi then launched into a dis-
"Howard and I now pray every day,"
cussion on the purpose of prayer as a
she said. "It's really transformed our