Rosh Hashanah

12

Steps

On The Spiritual Path

RONELLE GRIER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

High Holidays
provide inspiration
for recovering
addicts.

The Daniel B. Sobel Friendship
House, a Jewish recovery
program of Friendship Circle
of Michigan, provides support,
guidance, friendship and a
welcoming community for
recovering Jewish addicts. A
Jewish recovery meeting for
addicts as well as those with
friends and family members
who struggle with addiction is
held every Thursday night at
7:30 p.m. at Friendship House,
6892 W. Maple Road
in West Bloomfield.
For more information,
contact Rabbi Benny
Greenwald at (248) 788-8888
or email him at
benny@friendshipcircle.org.

24

September 6 • 2018

T

he High Holiday season
has a special meaning
for most Jews, regardless
of their level of observance.
For those who are recovering
from addiction, these holidays,
especially Rosh Hashanah, Yom
Kippur and Sukkot, have a dis-
tinct significance. The 12 Steps,
which serve as the guiding
tenets of recovery programs for
alcohol, drugs, food, gambling
and other compulsive behav-
iors, bear a close resemblance
to some of the basic principles
of the High Holidays.
According
to Rabbi
Benny
Greenwald
of the Daniel
B. Sobel
Friendship
House, Rosh
Hashanah is
Rabbi Benny
the holiday
Greenwald
where we
acknowledge
our Higher Power and give up
our need to be in charge, which
corresponds to Steps 1, 2 and 3.
“We’re letting go; we’re saying
I can’t run this ship by myself,”
says Greenwald, whose work
with recovering addicts has
enriched his own High Holiday
experience. “People in recovery
know ‘If I don’t do this ( follow
a recommended program of
recovery), I die.’ When you see
addicts working on their char-
acter defects and their recov-

jn

ery, it’s inspiring. It’s inspired
me in my own spiritual path.”
The 4th Step involves
embarking on a “searching and
fearless moral inventory” of the
harms done to others as a result
of the addiction. Steps 5, 6 and
7 focus on examining the char-
acter defects that caused the
harmful behavior and preparing
to become a better person.
Greenwald equates this
process with the 10 days of
repentance, or teshuvah, that
fall between Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur. He explains
that teshuvah actually means
“return,” when Jews return to a
more righteous path after being
led astray by addiction and its
resultant destructive behavior.
“People who are living in
recovery are not ‘cured,’” said
Cary Heller, a regular attendee
at the Jewish recovery meetings
at Friendship House. “What
we are given is a daily reprieve
from using (drugs and alcohol)
as long as our ‘spiritual house’
is in order.
“Holidays like Rosh
Hashanah are especially helpful
for people in recovery like me.
Knowing that my life is liter-
ally on the line and that all of
this is teetering on my spiritual
condition today … can be a bit
of a tall order. But God helps
us with holidays like Rosh
Hashanah.”
Leading up to Yom Kippur,
it is customary to apologize to

Greenwald believes the clos-
those we have harmed during
ing prayers of Yom Kippur are
the past year, a direct corollary
a strong expression of Step 11,
to Steps 8 and 9, which involve
which focuses on prayer and
making direct amends wher-
meditation.
ever possible.
Rabbi Yisrael
“In Jewish law, we
Pinson, founder and
make direct amends to
director of Chabad
people; we ask forgive-
in the D and former
ness,” Greenwald says.
director of Friendship
“God forgives our sins to
House, believes each
Him, but we have to ask
holiday has its own
for forgiveness from the
energy and spiritual
people we have harmed.
theme. While the ener-
We express regret about
Rabbi Yisrael
gy of Passover is free-
the past and make
Pinson
dom, Pinson believes
good resolutions for the
the energy of Rosh
future.”
Hashanah is connected to the
In an article called
“Atonement or Forgiveness?” on blowing of the shofar.
“The message of the shofar is a
the Chabad.org website, Rabbi
wake-up call. It’s time to repent,
Ben A., a rabbi who writes
to do teshuvah,” said Pinson in a
frequently (and anonymously)
recorded recovery class available
about recovery, discusses the
on Chabad.org. “When we sound
concept of amends from a
the shofar, we are doing God’s
recovery viewpoint:
will; we are practicing recovery
“Contrary to popular mis-
and repentance and we are
conception, Yom Kippur is not
renewing our relationship with
only about being forgiven by
God.”
God. Forgiveness you can get
The holiday of Sukkot,
all year-round; Yom Kippur is
primarily about atonement. Big according to Greenwald, helps
recovering addicts practice
difference. Forgiveness means
Step 12; working with others to
that after I make my apology,
help them recover.
I’m off the hook. Atonement
“We eat in the sukkah and
means that I am engaged in
shake a lulav and etrog, which
hard work to restore the rela-
are both concepts of unity. The
tionship to its original state …
sukkah unites everyone inside
When we behave differently
of it, and if we have something
all year-round as a result of
good, we want to share it with
our Yom Kippur amends, then
others, just as we do in recov-
we are proving that we really
ery,” Greenwald says. •
atoned.”

