Prayers for Coping with Cancer?
Written by Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Romain Thursday, 20 January 2011
Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Romain responds to the question: Are there specific prayers you can recommend for coping with cancer?There are many different ways to face cancer – with medical expertise being key, and the support of those around you important too. Exercise and diet also play a part. Prayer can help too - not to suddenly expect God to wave a magic wand and make everything better, but as a way of expressing one’s deepest thoughts and fears and hopes. It is also a sign of humility – saying 'I am going to try very hard, but I can’t do this all on my own, so can You take over a bit, God'. That is the message of the last line of the Adon Olam, which end most morning services and closes with the line : 'B’yado af’kid ruchi' - 'In God's hand I place my soul'.
Many find the Psalms helpful, especially the ‘Ten Psalms of Healing’ that Nachman of Bratslav suggested his followers read when they when were ill, urging them not to fall prey to despair, but always to hope and be positive (Psalms 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, 150). There is the prayer at the beginning of the morning service, 'Asher yatzar' - which talks of God fashioning the human body, creating openings, arteries, glands, and organs, unique in design 'and should one of them be blocked or fail to function, it would be impossible to exist'. It is a reminder of how amazing the human body is and how most of the time most of it works, and we only become aware of its stunning complexity when it does not. T
hen there is the 'sh'checheyanu' - 'Blessed are You God, who has sustained us and kept us alive and brought us to this season'. It is a remarkable blessing of survival: that even with our troubles (be they physical or emotional, family or work) we have staggered through another year, we have made it, we have survived this far. In this context, it is about having cancer (or some other condition), but living with it and battling through it.
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