Religion and spirituality in clinical practice from the Jewish Healing Foundation

Who We Are

The Jewish Healing Foundation is a resource and support center dedicated to recreate, develop and practice an authentic Jewish healing system based on Torah and Kabbalah.

Ya'akov Gerlitz, the founder and director of the Jewish Healing Foundation, saw that the Jewish nation had unique healing needs. Currently, many of the Jewish healing movements revolve around prayer, affirmation and song. While these are essential ingredients for healing, where was Kabbalah, Chassidut and Maimonides? And, most importantly, where is Jewish medicine's integration with physical medicine?

We realized that many of our patients were not aware of the importance of the soul's role in healing. Our main goal is to inform you that there is a rich tradition of healing in the Jewish mystical tradition, one that is replete with diagnostic methods, treatment strategies, ethical teachings, and spiritual profundities. For example, Jewish healing contains such elements as soul cleansing, identifying with your soul's hidden essence, and the spiritual significance of such necessities as eating and personal hygiene.

We want to present to you Jewish healing. It is taught in the Kabbalah that all of the healing information, located in other cultures and throughout the world, is encoded in the Torah, and many of the great tzaddikim (sages) in our history have used this system. The Rambam had a deeply spiritual monotheistic system, not based on Greek philosophy, but on the Torah, that is still very much relevant today. Medical Intuition is a classical method of diagnosing and treating conditions with incredible accuracy and depth. Our goal is to promulgate such teachings in order to enrich your life and, with Hashem's help, bring you to complete health.

How Our work Helps You

We presently maintain a health clinic, an informative website which includes original content, counseling services, and manage a Jewish healing referral network. The Center is currently doing exciting and innovative research to discover the sources of Jewish healing in the texts of Maimonides, Chassidut and Kabbalah with the sole purpose of creating clinically viable treatment methods so that people can start practicing authentic Jewish healing.

Our Center also does very important community outreach programming for all those whose lives have been touched by sickness, grief, stress and family problems. We provide much needed help by offering professional workshops, support groups and private telephone counseling.

Our Support Groups include:

• Cancer support groups for patients and their loved ones
• A "peace of mind" group for stress management, fears and phobias

Our Workshops Presently Include:

• The Jewish Healing Workshop
  In this workshop participants learn methods of how to incorporate Jewish Healing into their health practice. Understand the benefits of Jewish healing and be able to provide others with valuable information on the effective use of Jewish medicine.


• Merkava Workshop
  Kabbalistic tools for self actualization, soul transcendence and physical healing based on the ten sefirot

All groups and workshops are taught with practical tools to heal body and soul within a Jewish framework. We have in the planning yearly conferences for Jewish healers to share experiences, exchange ideas and learn from each other.

How Our Work Helps The World

We live in a confused generation. Divisiveness plagues us on all levels - personal, interpersonal, familial and societal. The body reflects the soul, which is the underlying motivator and executive director. The body's physical health reflects the soul's spiritual health. It's apparent to anyone who takes an honest glance into the state of health nowadays on a micro and macro level that the physical manifestation of the bodily "divisiveness" also plagues us all.

On the other hand, or perhaps in response to our present state of affairs, we all seem to be witnessing an awakening. An awakening characterized by a huge hunger - a hunger to bridge all of this divisiveness - to heal our bodies as well also our disconnected selves and various factions of society. The prophet describes our generation as "not a hunger for bread ..or .. water but to hear the word of G-d" (Amos 8:11). The Zohar and the Kabbalah describe a similar awakening of the upper and lower wellsprings that took place in the year 1840, the advent of the technological revolution. Society tapped the lower wellsprings (technology) at that time and we're still enjoying it's fruits, though the upper wellsprings (Kabbalah) still remain largely untapped.

We are a group of Kabbalists, Torah scholars, and spiritual and physical healers driven to tap this awakening by bridging the upper and lower wellsprings, bridging upper and lower parts of our soul, and bridging Torah and Kabbalah's sublime but not yet fully applied wisdom to serve as a template to heal the body. With Hashem's help, we are doing our part in helping rediscover and develop an authentic Jewish healing system. In this regard we hope to be part of a rich tradition of Kabbalists and Torah scholars, who historically have also been concerned with healing the Jewish nation. We seek to synthesize the wellsprings of Jewish healing wisdom with its counterpart in the secular world. We seek to quench the thirst of all of our people specifically in the area of authentic Jewish healing.

Contact Information

Ya'akov Gerlitz, Dipl.Ac & C.H.
Director
The Jewish Healing Foundation