Stress Relief--The Jewish Way

Are you looking forward to summer but feel like you are too stressed-out to enjoy it?  I want to enjoy my family in the warm glow of the sun and to laugh while running inside during a burst of rain.  I would like to take my time on Sunday morning going for coffee with the kids and riding our bikes to the store.  I look forward to watching the neighborhood gang run around in the dark playing some flashlight game.  I like watching endless baseball games with the moms, each of us with our own particular “woohoo” sounds of encouragement.  We all want to enjoy our summers.  How can we keep the stresses of life from interfering with our fun.

Intellectually, I know what to do. Yoga, breathing techniques, hot tea, a glass of wine, that kind of thing. Not enough. Is there a Jewish way of handling stress? In the Rabbi’s absence, I of course, turn to Google.  I found several articles written by rabbis and other Jewish scholars. Already aware of such helpful hints as keeping a journal and meditating, I wanted to dig a little deeper, something in Hebrew or Yiddish perhaps?  

Torah on Tension, a response letter written by Rabbi Yirmiyahu Ullman, gave me a little Talmudic advice I will share with you. Tafasta meruba lo tafasta --if you try to grasp and accomplish too much you end up with nothing.  That serves a reminder to learn to say “no” once in awhile.

Writer Roiza Weinreich, from Torah.org says when we stress out and panic, we are only adding to our problems. “We can learn this from an incident in the Torah, where the Jews complained to Moshe when they encamped in Marah, a place that had only bitter water. The Ibn Ezra teaches us that the Jews stayed in Marah only one day and immediately afterward they went to Eilim -- an oasis with 12 wells and 70 date palms...”

Weinreich continues, “Rabbi Zelig Pliskin points out that when you worry you suffer in the present, even if life turns out perfectly in the future. He advises a practical way to teach yourself to be patient instead of worrying: For one month, make a list each week of five things you worried about in the past that turned out better than you expected. You can learn from your past experience that 80 percent of the things you are worrying about now will be all right in the end.”

One more nugget that I found in my pursuit of a stress-free life can be found on the JC.com website in an excerpt from the book Jewish Wisdom for Business Success, written by  Rabbi Levi Brackman and Sam Jaffe speaks to the power of positive thinking and speaking. They write about Kabbalist and Chasidic master known as the Tzemech Tzedek (1789-1866). Once asked to pray on behalf of a seriously ill person, he responded, telling the family to practise positive thinking. He advised in Yiddish, “Tracht gut vet zain gut,” meaning “Think good and it will be good.” Many people assume that this is some sort of wishful thinking, but consider for a moment whether you have ever heard someone who is very successful in their line of work speak pessimistically. Think, too, about the person you know who always complains that things aren’t going right. Almost always, you will find that successful people don’t focus on the negative, while unsuccessful people often do.

There are many resources to help you manage stress including the web, Jewish books, and in the Torah.  Some of us find comfort just talking to wise Jewish people (my mom and Lillian, our very own office administrator, for example).  I also take solace in the fact that Jewish wisdom is so practical, that’s why we’ve been around for so long.  Some of us may need a little help interpreting what we find deep in the Torah or help to discern one Yiddish story from the next.  That is what Rabbi Eitan is for.  I can’t wait until returns.