Healing from Illness

While there are many traditional Jewish prayers for healing, the feminist movement empowered first women, and then men and women, to create many more prayers and ceremonies which spoke to the specific situations in which they found themselves. The complexity of modern medicine has added to this need for prayers for tests, prayers before surgery, prayers after chemotherapy and for each chemo session, etc. In addition, several writers on ritualwell have created ceremonies to celebrate an important anniversary in relationship to their disease.

Sometimes the situation calls for a few words, like a mantra, which can be said on facing a difficult decision or a treatment. Sometimes, we need a full-blown ceremony among friends and loved ones. And sometimes we need a healing service, where we join with others who are in need of healing. You can find all of these on ritualwell.

This section of the site is far from complete; rituals or prayers you create would be welcome additions.

Photo from istockphoto.com

When fasting is not Teshuvah - Yom Kippur with Eating Disorders

Shared by Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers | Complete Ceremony

Prayers and kavanot for those who should not fast [more]

Found In: Yom Kippur, Healing from Illness, Tisha b'Av & Minor Fast Days

Tags: teshuvah

When the Body Hurts, the Soul Still Longs to Sing

By Rabbi Nancy Flam | Prayer

Faced with the challenge of blessing God for the gift of one's body when the body doesn't always work as it used to, the author invited a group of women to develop alternative blessings to be said to help people suffering from illness connect to God and seek God's presence. [more]

Found In: Healing from Illness, Growing Older

Gifts of the Mothers: A Meditation for Healing

Shared by Ariel Neshama Lee | Prayer

A guided meditation for illness, pain, stress, or grief which calls upon imaginings of the foremothers [more]

Found In: Pursuing Justice, Healing from Illness

Tags: meditation

Faith Zap Love. Today.

By Gari Julius Weilbacher | Prayer

A meditation the author created to use during radiation treatments for breast cancer [more]

Found In: Healing from Illness

Tags: cancer

Beginning a Religious Response to Mastectomy

By Sylvia Rothschild | Prayer

A meditation before a mastectomy [more]

Found In: Healing from Illness

Tags: cancer, meditation

A Celebration of Life

By Nancy H. Wiener with Judith Tax | Complete Ceremony

Because 18 ("chai," or life, in Hebrew) years represents a lifetime, this woman decided to celebrate the 18th anniversary of her mastectomy with a pre-havdalah ritual. [more]

Found In: Healing from Illness

Tags: cancer, havdalah

On Having a Breast Cyst Removed

By Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow | Complete Ceremony

A ritual, which can also be used for other kinds of physical and psychological healing, marking the transition from mourning to reclaiming health [more]

Found In: Healing from Illness

Tags: handwashing

A Time to Heal

By Lori Marx-Rubiner | Complete Ceremony

A mikveh ceremony performed with friends marking the end of chemotheraphy before surgery [more]

Found In: Healing from Illness

Tags: cancer, Debbie Friedman, mikveh

Mikveh Following Cancer

By Diane Bernbaum | Article

A piece describing a woman's experiences with breast cancer and the healing power of a mikveh ritual [more]

Found In: Healing from Illness, Healing & Hard Times

Tags: cancer, mikveh

Mikveh for Recurrence or Exacerbation of Cancer

Created by Mayyim Hayyim Ritual Creation Team, 2004 | Complete Ceremony

This ritual is designed for someone wanting to immerse in the healing waters of the mikveh upon learning of a recurrence or exacerbation of cancer [more]