Communicated: TefillaChillul Tefila Bifarhesia, as well as halachicly challenged verbiage and dress, are external manifestations of a critical lack of personal yiras shomayim which has lethal consequences.
This became an epiphanous (‘ah ha’) moment for me. The idea of being on a path and seemingly knowing the way you are going and then having to change as your surroundings throw you a curve-ball. This became a watch-word for me in my working with patients and with my own relationship with my disease.
I must add that I altered the word recalculating to recalibrating. Although I took years upon years of math in university, I never felt that it spoke to me. (My husband and children, math wizzes all, used to speak of an elegant math problem; a concept that still eludes me!)
And so as I ponder the new PET scan data before me, I think about our fore-fathers, mothers and cousins, the very first olim to Israel, celebrating their first Sukkot not long after they thought they had arrived at a place that was going to be comfortable, familiar and home. They had to recalibrate, as we do every year, and maybe those of us who have life changes and celebrate Sukkot do so more often.
May Hashem grant us all a wonderful and healthy year with clear paths for our personal GPS to follow when one or more roads are blocked.
G’Mar Tov
Dr. Guedalia is the Director of the Neuropsychology Unit at Shaare Zedek Medical Cente. She is also a licensed Supervisor and Specialist in Medical, Rehabilitation, and Developmental Psychology, EMDR Certified Practitioner, Certified ADOS Diagnostician and the Co-Chair of Nefesh Israel. Dr. Guedalia can be reached through her website www.drjudithguedalia.com. Her new book, ANeuropsychologist’s Journal: Interventions and Judi-isms is available through Urim Press.
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There is no doubt that the David Arenberg who will emerge from prison in approximately five months is a different, a better and a more spiritual human being than the one who went in more than 12 years ago. But the losses and the pain have been profound.
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Scene One:
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