Elul 9 Jews and the 12 Steps

This morning I was a participant in a focus group for rabbis about addiction in the Jewish community.  One rabbi spoke about how there are times when we feel empty inside.  We hunger and search to fill the void inside.  Some of us choose to fill the void with a false sense of security--with substances that will never fill us up.    
We spoke about how we search and search to 'find an easier, softer way' and only when our research is completed and we 'hit rock-bottom', do we open ourselves up to the possibility of turning to a Higher Power and to admitting we have a problem and knowing that there must be a better way to live.  


In my last year of rabbinical school, I was a student rabbi on a JACS retreat.  JACS, an organization dedicated to providing  support to Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent and Significant others in recovery.  At the JACS retreat, I joined about 6 other rabbis of varied denominations and we spoke with and listened to a hundred or so Jews from the Ultra-Orthodox and Chasidic to the secular and the agnostic.   I spoke with recovering addicts who said that their rabbi believed “Jews don’t drink.”  Some had not entered a synagogue in years because of the guilt and shame they felt about their addictions.  They felt like outcasts in their own our community.  And still others entered into compassionate and welcoming communities that helped them find 12 Step programs and supported them in thier recovery.  


Its rough out there.  We don't have to suffer alone.  Many of us feel an emptiness of the soul and spirit at times, but the addict never feels whole; the void always lurking deep within.  The addict suffers until she or he finds recovery and begins to understand that substance abuse is a disease and the cure is to put one's faith in a Higher Power, go to 12 step meetings, and abstain from the addition by working a daily program of recovery.  


In this month of Elul, when we especially turn to examine our lives, we can ask ourselves whether we  keep searching for ways to fill the void to no avail? Do we keep doing the same things and getting the same results?  Are our lives unmanageable no matter how much we try to control things? 


If you think you might have a problem with substance abuse, phone or email a local 12 step group or perhaps you can contact a clergy-person, teacher or friend who is familiar with 12 step programs. There are recovery groups for addictions of all kinds--Alcohol, food, gambling, sexual behaviour, co-dependencey, drugs etc. There are also support groups like Al-Anon for those living with addicts.  


Ultimately the teshuva process and the 12 steps have the same goal. They help us become the one we were meant to be by bringing us closer to God and wake us up to the sparks of holiness within us all.  


Sending love and blessings of shalom--wholeness and peace.