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Rabbi/Psychiatrist Offers
Fresh Torah Perspective
Unconventional background lends new insight to weekly Torah portion.
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RABBI YAKOV TRAVIS
Special to the Jewish News
T
here is certainly no shortage of traditional corn-
mentaries on the Torah.
What makes Rabbi Michael Bernstein's book,
Windows to the Soul: A Psychiatrist Finds a Wealth
of Ideas in the Weekly Torah Reading different is the fresh
perspective that the author's unconventional background
brings to the text.
Rabbi Bernstein, raised in a Reform Jewish home in
Cleveland, discovered his passion for Torah only in his col-
lege years, while backpacking
through Israel en route to India.
After years of yeshiva study in
Israel and elsewhere leading to
Orthodox ordination, he earned
his doctor of medicine degree at
.i Rabbi
Case Western Reserve University
Bernstein in Cleveland and then pursued a
career in child psychiatry.
Bernstein attributes the origi-
nality of his insights to his late
start in Torah scholarship and to
his training in psychiatry which,
he writes, "sensitized me to
important nuances buried in the
Torah's subtleties."
For instance, while Noah is
commanded, "Go out from the
ark, you, your wife, your sons ..."
(Genesis 8:16), he apparently does
not
exactly heed the directive.
Rabbi Michael Berhstein. M.D.
The Torah rearranges the order
when it says he exited "himself,
his sons, his wife ..." (8:18). Rabbi Bernstein cleverly links
this to Noah's drunken stupor in the vineyard episode, not-
ing how "modern psychology has observed that as drug use
increases, meaningful reciprocal relationships decline." He
speculates that while God had advised Noah to "deal with
his sense of loss by investing his emotional efforts in his
family," Noah sought "relief in the vineyard."
Windows to the Soul is written for both the learned and
the laymen, so the writing is quite accessible. It is a richly
instructive entree to the world of traditional Torah homilet-
ics, and one that often benefits from a psychologically
informed twist. The strength of this work is its attention to
nuance and its often creative interpretations.
The messages gleaned from these nuances will provide
many insights for both those new to Torah and the seasoned
reader. These insights derive from Rabbi Bernstein's well-
crafted paraphrasing of classic commentators, such as the
7'1;1,3
GfLNE6:..s - EXOC,JS
Rabbi Yakov Travis is assistant professor at the Cleveland
College of Jewish Studies.
Maharal of Prague, and from his own personal speculations.
Bernstein explains that one of the more important
advances of psychoanalytic theory, namely "the rediscovery
of the precision and depth of speech," was a deeply held
assumption of rabbinical Bible interpreters from time
immemorial. Readers of Windows to the Soul will benefit
from the rare and exceptional coalescence of the author's
psychiatric and rabbinic training.
Whenever I dipped into Windows to the Soul, I came
away with a more profound understanding of Torah. Its tra-
ditional insights of contemporary relevance make for excel-
lent Shabbat reading. The second volume, covering
Leviticus through Deuteronomy, was scheduled for release
soon.
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❑
ffnai Moshe Cites JTS Honorees
Congregation B'nai Moshe will recognize Lynne Avadenka
and Marc Sussman of Huntington Woods as this year's
Jewish Theological Seminary honorees on Saturday, May 5,
during services.
Sussman serves on the board of directors and is ritual
committee chair. He is a member of the Men's High
Holiday Choir, having
trained under the late
Cantor Louis Klein.
Avadenka also
serves on the ritual
committee and both
are Torah and
Haftorah readers, as
well as chanters of all
the holiday megillot.
They are the parents
of Max and Eli.
Sussman is a partner
in the law firm of
Levine, Benjamin,
Tushman,
Bratt, Jerris
Marc Sussman and Lynne Avadenka
and Stein PC. In 1997,
he attended the Imun
Program sponsored by the United Synagogue of
Conservative Judaism.
Avadenka is an artist with a master's degree in fine arts
from Wayne State University. Her art is inspired by Judaic
themes.
She has had solo exhibitions at the Detroit Institute of
Arts and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Her
work is in the permanent collection of the Israel Museum,
the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, JTS,
the DIA and the Paul Getty Museum. She is an instructor
at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit. Her work will
be displayed at an exhibit in New York in May, marking
1,000 years of Jewish art and culture.
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