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Asher Yatzar: A Blessing of Radical Consciousness!

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January 22, 2015

There is a traditional Jewish blessing that I recite every time I come out of the bathroom (asher yatzar). In this blessing, we celebrate that our bodies are miraculously working, expressing gratitude for this fact, but also protesting our forgetfulness that God is keeping us alive. This miracle is even greater then a beautiful sunset. We can live without the beautiful sunset, but we cannot live without a working body.

While we are conscious of our thoughts – our physical and mental abilities –  there are more than 10 major systems in our body that function in harmony, allowing us to enjoy our existence. Our 206 bones are living organs that allow us to stand and yet also give us flexibility in movement through the 26 vertebrae that go down our neck and back. While we may think bone is stable, it is maintained through a perfect balance of cells that build bone (osteoblasts) and cells that achieve bone resorption (osteoclasts). Bone marrow, soft connective tissue within bone, produces billions of blood cells (red, white, platelets) on a daily basis, continually rejuvenating the blood. Simultaneously, our autonomic nervous system regulates all the processes that we do not consciously operate, such as breathing and heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and balance of electrolytes in our body. Meanwhile, the endocrine system comprises the glands and produce the body’s hormones. For example, the thymus produces the T-lymphocytes that are necessary for the body’s immune system to function, and the pancreas produces insulin in a quantity necessary to keep blood sugar levels under control, while other hormones help regulate blood pressure, assist food digestion, and assist our reproductive function. While it works, our body is truly a marvel.

On the other hand, consider all that might go wrong in the body in a given day. With all these systems failures can bring on a myriad of woe. If neurons in the brain die, you may wind up with Parkinson disease, which progressively diminishes a person’s ability to control muscles, leading to tremor in the hands, arms and legs, and the face, impaired gait and posture, and dysphagia (the inability to swallow properly), which can lead to aspiration pneumonia and death. When brain function begins to deteriorate due to protein plaques, the result is often dementia, a series of progressive mental illnesses of which the most notable is Alzheimer disease. This disease progresses inexorably from memory lapses to language, judgment, even physical impairment. In bone, if osteoclasts proliferate (as in osteoporosis and metastatic bone disease), bone mineral density and bone quality decreases, leading to severe pain and a high risk for fractures. While lymphocytes ordinarily are the bulwark of the body’s immune system, a mutation and subsequent rapid reproduction of these abnormal cells produces lymphoma, a deadly blood cancer. In the endocrine system, if the pancreas does not function properly, insulin is not produced in the right amount or at the right time, which often leads to Type 2 diabetes; in turn, the resultant high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) can cause multiple other problems, macrovascular damage leading to heart attacks and stroke, to microvascular damage that can lead to kidney failure, blindness, and nerve damage (neuropathy). Finally, our heart is a mighty muscle, but if it weakens it can lead to failure and death. Unfortunately, this is but a small fraction of what can go wrong.

Most of us are blessed with years of a harmonious working of the body, and can, with gratitude, offer the traditional Jewish blessing daily. This gratitude should inspire us to take care of our bodies, a remarkable gift to be cherished. Further, this blessing should charge us to support those having physical struggles and health challenges. The blessing moves us vertically (gratitude above), horizontally (responsibility to others), and inward (awareness of the miracles within us). If we choose to be, we can be awakened to the spiritual power of constant miracles!

“Blessed are You, God, who heals all flesh and acts wondrously!”

 

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the Executive Director of the Valley Beit Midrash, the Founder & President of Uri L’Tzedek, the Founder and CEO of The Shamayim V’Aretz Institute and the author of seven books on Jewish ethics.  Newsweek named Rav Shmuly one of the top 50 rabbis in America.”

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