By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.
SAN DIEGO — A Jewish young man was seeing a psychologist for an eating and sleeping disorder.
“I am so obsessed with my mother… As soon as I go to sleep, I start dreaming, and everyone in my dream turns into my mother. I wake up in such a state, all I can do is go downstairs and eat a piece of toast.”
The psychologist replies:
“What, just one piece of toast, for a big boy like you?”
After two Seders, eating like most of us have, sitting for hours and hours contemplating over matzoh, perhaps that “toast” reference was a bit much.
Yes, it’s sort of humorous but not really. In today’s world, we know all too well that about 50% of Americans have one or more preventable, chronic diseases and more than 67% have what I call, “overbesity” – overweight or obesity. Despite the best intentions of Jewish mothers and psychologists such as the ones in the somewhat humorous story above, despite the incredible attention to health and wellness by physicians and allied healthcare professionals, despite the attention in the media to exercise and weight management, since 1975 the percentage of people worldwide considered overweight or obese has tripled according to a February 2018 report by the World Health Organization.
It’s time to take stock, recognize that self-styled and other “experts” have largely failed and begin to look to other sources. Why not Torah?
Torah has answers for us in our search for optimal health, which I define as resting on the tripod of “ThEaMo” – Thinking well, Eating well and Moving well. As Rabbi Moshe Feinstein noted, matters of health and diet are best addressed through the lens of Torah. After all, aren’t our bodies receptacles of our souls?
If we believe this, then let’s turn to what it says in Tehillim (119:105) “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” Keeping our health at its optimal level is a spiritual mandate in that it allows us to fully fulfill mitzvot – not simply look good in our summer bikinis and in our form fitting gym clothes. The Rambam wrote, “Maintaining a healthy body is among the ways of serving Hashem, since it is impossible for one who is not healthy to understand or know anything of the Creator. Therefore one must distance himself from things which harm the body, and accustom oneself to the things that strengthen and make one healthy.”
Obesity, which comes from the Latin word “obesus,” appeared for the first time in 1620 in Thomas Venner’s Via Recta. However the Rambam, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, a preeminent rabbi, medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher, astronomer and physician, wrote about this disease centuries earlier.
Ours is clearly a religion of the body. We sanctify our bodies in so many ways from blessings on going to the bathroom, to our dietary “laws,” to laws about dealing with the body after death, to the “laws” of sexual behavior, to the Rambam’s observation in his famed, Mishneh Torah, “Whoever conducts himself in the ways we have set forth, I will guarantee that he will not get sick throughout his life…He will not need a doctor and his body will be in perfect shape and remain healthy all his life.” Big claim for sure. But one that the Yemenite Jewish population, which followed the Rambam’s main principles and teachings on eating and moving, found to be true. They had an average life span of 100 years.
Much of the Rambam’s advice can be succinctly stated, as he did, “A person should eat only when he is hungry and he should drink only when he is thirsty.” He goes on to add, “In the practice of medicine, the first and most important regimen is the one for the healthy, which insures that the existing state of health is not lost.” He also adds, “An expert physician who wants to guard his patient’s health begins by improving his diet.”
Are you “strong as a leopard, light as an eagle, fleet as a hart, and brave as a lion to perform the will of thy Father who is in heaven”? According to our Torah, that’s what proper religious life is all about—not simply reading, studying, sitting passively—it’s all about being active, fit, and athletic according to your abilities.
Dr. Walter Bortz of Stanford Medical School noted, “Americans live too short and die too long…the most important ‘organ’ of the body is not the lungs, the heart, liver or kidney but the legs. We’ve got to move to live to 100 – which we can do.” It says in Genesis (3:19), “By the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat.” The famed Kli Yakar and Rambam note this is related to exercise and eating properly and as long as a person exercises and exerts himself, one will find health.
The New Testament builds on our earlier writings and notes that our bodies are simply on loan from a higher power and therefore not ours to treat poorly, “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit…therefore honor God with your body.”
Our bodies, in Jewish and non-Jewish liturgy are the vehicle through which we express our devotion, more than simply a container of the soul.
Research has found that those who participate in an active religious life are more likely to eat fruits and veggies, have lower suicide rates than those who have no religious affiliation, and turn to addictive substances far less than their non-religiously active friends and associates. One study went so far as to conclude, “religious involvement is associated…with better physical health, mental health and longer survival.”
I’ve been commited to developing health and wellness programs in companies, schools, organizations, gyms, diet centers, on apps, and for colleges and universities throughout the world. It’s time we in our San Diego Jewish community fully raise our commitment to our own and each other’s health, happiness, wellness and longevity — from pre-school, public school, Day School and Torah school children and their families, to our local college students, through to baby boomers and those active aging members, affiliated, or not, with a synagogue.
I’ll leave you with these words of Pastor Rick Warren’s “Daniel Plan 5 F’s” to consider:
- Faith – develop a larger perspective on the world, beyond yourself.
- Food – eat food, not too much, mostly plant based (ok, kosher J).
- Fitness – be physically active, not too much, everyday.
- Focus – meditate, be mindful and aware of the good surrounding you – it’s there, so see it.
- Friends – build positive relationships throughout your daily life.
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Dr Michael Mantell, based in San Diego, provides coaching to business leaders, athletes, individuals and families to reach breakthrough levels of success and significance in their professional and personal lives. Mantell may be contacted via michael.mantell@sdjewishworld.com