We found a chiropractor! For many of you this might sound like something strange to announce, but we are chiropractic devotees who find tremendous relief in the services they offer. One of the trainers at the gym we joined suggested Daniels Chiropractic and more than a month after our move with plenty of lifting and moving of furniture and such, we were both hurting. I saw Dr. Dan for a knot that had formed in my mid-back and caused me three nights of sleepless agony. Steve saw Dr. Lockhart for his usual neck stiffness. We both walked out feeling much better.
Chiropractic operates on the concept that all the nerves in your body emanate from your spine and proper alignment of the spine is crucial to good health. It’s not just about cracking this or popping that, it’s about ensuring that nerves have free reign to support musculature and the vital organs of the body. The system of therapy chiropractic provides goes beyond just spinal manipulation to a more wholistic perspective that includes proper nutrition, regular exercise, and ergonomic training for how to sit, stand, and walk with minimum strain. Chiropractors know that the nerves housed in the body control everything we do from hearing, to digestion, to muscle health.
The famous commentator Rashi implies that the commandments are the most important part of the Five Books of Moses (Torah). While Torah is filled with stories of flawed men and women and the lion’s share of it is a chronicle of the Israelites rescue from Egypt and subsequent journey through the wilderness, the commandments are still the bottom line.
This week’s parashah is titled “Mishpatim” which means “laws.” After the “big ten,” there is so much more. Not all of Judaic wisdom lies in just what can be found in Exodus 20. The laws found in Mishpatim serve as the basis for much of our civil law. It’s also true as we continue through the rest of Torah that not all commands apply to everyone. Some are only for priests or specific to women or men only. Others apply only to those who are actually living in Israel. Many of them make perfect sense whether we know they are one of the 613 or not and some are a mystery as to why God commanded them.
What is a commandment? It’s more than a request. It implies some threat of punishment for fail to adhere. That’s the way we typically look at laws. Few people drive the speed limit because they see the benefits of following that law. They keep their speed in check to avoid getting a ticket. They don’t want to suffer the consequences of being picked up. Likewise, we don’t seek licensed plumbers or electricians for work in the house because we believe they will do a better job than Uncle Bob, but because the city inspector will be coming to see if things were done according to code.
Torah commands are meant to be different from the concept of either obeying or suffering punishment. Though most of the world believes that the inherent punishment is exile in hell if you break the commandments, they blithely break many of them without giving it a thought sometimes without knowing it’s a commandment and just as often because they just don’t think it applies to them. Actually, disobeying commandments and most laws comes with consequences. Those consequences are primarily natural. It’s like telling a child to not touch a lit candle lest they burn themselves. The burn is not a punishment, but a natural consequence of failing to heed the warning from a wiser person.
The commandments from God are called Torah and Torah means “instructions,” not “law.” These commandments all come with natural consequences that we may or may not recognize.
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, an 18th century Italian rabbi and poet, described the commandments as “pipelines to Heaven.” He said they are meant to provide us a way to connect more deeply with God. They are the means by which we become attached to Him. How does eating kosher, for example, do that? Suddenly, awareness of what is in the food we buy and eat becomes important. We are forced to think about spiritual things even when we are doing something that is strictly physical. Observing Sabbath takes us out of the here and now, the busyness of the world, and transports us into a full 24 hours of rest, a reset for our bodies, minds, and souls.
The 613 commandments are physical obligations that some say connect to 613 spiritual parts within us. It’s part of our spiritual anatomy. They are, as Luzzatto maintains, a “pipeline to Heaven.”
How about an anatomy lesson. You have 206 bones in your body. The foot bone’s connected to the leg bone. The leg bone’s connected to the hip bone and so on and so on. The bones are held together with ligaments and tendons that hold approximately 700 muscles in place. Within each muscle are blood vessels that converge in your heart and lungs making sure oxygen gets into your bloodstream. There are approximately 86 billion neurons that fire to make the muscles and your organs work. Those neurons all come together in your spine and how well your body works is fully dependent on the health of your spine and the proper functioning of your brain. It’s a miracle we can’t understand, but we know when things aren’t working right.
Dr. Dan asked about prior chiropractic experiences. He asked me how often I went. I said Steve was far more regular, going once or twice a month due to headaches usually brought on by neck and shoulder tightness. I said I was more of a “wait-until-things-fall-apart-and-go-get-it-fixed” sort of girl. I tend to wait until the knot in my back brings me to tears or reduces me to laying on the dog’s chew toy on the floor (true story from my weekend).
This is how many of us treat our spiritual lives. Rather checking in regularly with God, praying, studying His word, and trying to understand better what He expects from us, we tend to wait until things are completely broken and then go for a fix. An illness drives us to our knees. A financial disaster causes us to turn in the only direction we can think of to get help. A death consumes us with grief as we realize that there is only one way out of this life and we all will experience it at some point. We realize how connected or disconnected we are and seek help. We turn to God “from whence comes our help.”
I admit it’s a reach, God as the Great Chiropractor in the sky. But maybe not. He is exactly the one who can help us open the channels and follow the protocols that will help us maintain our spiritual health. His commandments teach us not so much how to sit, stand, and walk ergonomically, but righteously in a complicated and sometimes difficult world. His Heavenly adjustments ensure that everything is firing as it ought to be. A regular spiritual adjustment might be just what the doctor ordered for you.
I Am My Father's Daughter 