My Chiropracter Prepared Me for Rosh Hashana

Every other year in the days surrounding the High Holy Days, I find myself running to my chiropractor Joel Silbar, so that he can adjust me, bringing some solace to my sore back.

Sometimes, when I have ignored until too late the damage I have been doing to my body and soul, this man of gifted hands will meet me backstage at the Fred Kavli Theatre in Thousand Oaks just before Congregation Or Ami’s High Holy Day services. There, he lays me out on the floor and in an act reminiscent of the spiritual teshuva (repentance/return) Jews are instructed to engage in, he turns me from the pain piercing my pre-prayerful preparations back on a path of wholeness and healing.

After each emergency adjustment, I arise again feeling fine. Each time he leaves me with a hug and a smile and a suggestion that, in addition to attending to my sermons, I might also spend time attending to the stresses that build up in my body. Each time I leave him with a hug and a promise, too quickly forgotten or ignored, that I will do the core work necessary to combat the crick that confounds my preferred pre-service calm.

This year, as the High Holy Days approach, I have committed to finally listen to my chiropractor’s advice. This year, I am spending as much time focused on my body’s core- work as I put into the spiritual core-work I do for myself.

Just as I have long encouraged others to prepare well ahead for the spiritual journey that comes with the Jewish High Holy Days, I am trying to practice what I preach.

I have been taking online courses with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality to develop on my spiritual core, creating and strengthening new pathways for my whole person. I am rededicating to my morning rituals, a spiritual practice to return me to soulfulness. I am up early for meditation using the Calm app to practice breathing through the vicissitudes of life.

Then, while listening to my Spotify playlist of Modeh Ani (prayer of thanks), I do my gratitude work by writing down three things from the previous 24 hours for which I am thankful for and why I am thankful. These remind me in the midst of life’s pressures that I am surrounded by a bounty of blessings.

Imagining my chiropractor’s smile cheering me on, I dedicate time to core strengthening exercises to prepare my weary body to carry me through. Often I am listening to podcasts from The Happiness Lab or On the Other Hand: Ten Minutes of Torah.

Finally, onto exercise, swimming or treadmill time, to integrate all this mind, heart and body work. It takes time to take care of ourselves. Each of us deserves the attention of heart-mind-body work as most of us are plagued with too much stress, anxiety and other real-world pressures. During the upcoming Yamim Noraim (the Days of Awe), we will be asked if we are on the path of promise or if we have pursued less positive pathways leading in directions not good for our soul-center.

Often we stress about carrying the burden of the past and the worry about the future. Might we do the wholeness work now to focus on returning our present to promise and inner peace? Such focus will refill our depleted stores and strengthen our weakened cores.

As for me, my core-work is already showing signs of success. I am breathing better. I am more focused. I have more stamina. My soul seems more satisfied. On Rosh Hashana, we will sound the shofar, a ram’s horn that calls us to commit to internal transformation. Its piercing sounds send us on a journey back to our authentic selves.

When Cantor Kyle Cotler, Rabbi Lana Zilberman Soloway and I (Congregation Or Ami’s clergy team) stand up on the bimah (stage) at the Thousand Oaks Bank of America Performing Arts Center, we hope to bring together the right combination of moving music (traditional and contemporary), spoken word (ancient prayers and modern poetry), guided meditation and authentic God talk to touch people’s minds, hearts and souls. We will weave together core messages and spiritual core-work to guide the gathered to let go of the constant pain or ongoing pressures that stress our minds and souls. We will help each other return to authenticity.

Jewish tradition and time-tested experience, teach that these messages move deeper inside when we each are already prepared. Will you be read to hearthe shofar’s call?

Begin your core-work today. Strengthen your physical core even as you deepen your spiritual core. That way neither you nor I will find ourselves strewn out ona backstage floor somewhere seeking a last minute adjustment. Rather we will be reaching out and reaching up with a freedom of movement that comes from ongoing mind-body-soul core-work.

Wishing those who observe a spiritually fulfilling, intellectually engaging, musically uplifting High Holy Days. And may we all be blessed.

Cross-posted at Calabasas Style Magazine