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August 2008

Tisha B’Av in Recovery

We have gotten terrific feedback and requests for the NCJH’s latest edition of The Outstretched Arm: Addiction, Recovery and Healing. Therefore, we wanted to share another selection with you. This selection is related to Tisha B’av, which occurs on the English calendar date of August 10th, and is an annual day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temples and other calamities in Jewish history.

Tisha B’Av in Recovery
I have polluted Your temple
Where my soul resides;
With food and drink,
With pills and passion;
I have filled my mouth with words
Of hate and jealousy,
And my heart with feelings
Of fear and despair.
I have denied my illness,
And given into craving;
I am helpless,
Without Your power and Your love.
Rebuild my walls of hope,
Restore my resolution,
Lead me, step by step,
Into Your Holy Place,
That I may enter into recovery
Filled with Your presence,
Hour by hour,
One day at a time.

By Tamar D. Earnest, MD, July, 2007.
Jewish Sisters in Sobriety, page 81.

These "Spirituality Notes" are excerpts from our monthly E-newsletter. Articles are © JBFCS Rita J. Kaplan Jewish Connections Programs and may be reprinted free of charge as long as this credit line is included.

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