Prayer and Healing
Prayer Mountain: A Place of Physical and Spiritual Healing through Prayer
Hajung Lee, JD, PhD(s), Boston University
“Prayer Mountain” in South Korea is a sacred facility of prayers and worship open day and night for Christians with a sanctuary, accommodating facility, and individual prayer rooms. The “prayer mountain movement” began in the 1940s and kindled the development of Korean charismatic Protestantism. Today, there are more than two thousand prayer mountains in the greater Seoul area, mostly located in the secluded mountain areas. The Korean prayer mountain movement has inspired a number of Pentecostal ministers to begin prayer mountain movements in many different countries such as the Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S.A.
Many evangelical Korean Christians consider prayer mountain a place to encounter God and experience healing through fasting and prayer. Due to the high religiosity of Koreans and indigenous shamanistic influences on Korean Christianity, prayer mountain has become a popular place for evangelical Korean Christians to visit while they battle serious illnesses. When patients with incurable diseases run out of viable medical treatments, they choose prayer mountain as a last resort. These patients come to prayer mountain with the hope of experiencing healing miracles. They often pray and fast for the duration of their stay. Many ministers with spiritual gifts often lay their hands on and pray for patients. Some patients have testified that they attained complete healing from incurable diseases through this prayer therapy. Furthermore, some dying patients use the prayer mountain facility as hospice care. They stay at prayer mountains until the end of their lives and pursue spiritual peace through prayer. Some patients use alternative food therapy with prayer therapy, when they are not fasting.
Korean pentecostal and charismatic churches, in particular, have emphasized prayers and miracles through personal experience of the Holy Spirit to cure serious illness. Pastors in those streams often lay their hands over patients and pray for healing by the Holy Spirit. They offer several different views on the cause of serious illness from a spiritual standpoint, and they stress the importance of the spiritual realm in relation to physical sickness. Ministers believe that prayer therapy can cure physical illness by caring for the spirit. They encourage patients to pray and fast intensively, repent for their sins, and forgive others, in order to strengthen their spirituality. This prayer therapy at prayer mountain offers a holistic dimension of care by caring for both body and soul.
In this research, I will trace the history of prevalent prayer therapy at various prayer mountains in Korea. I will examine the theological interpretation of prayer therapy and spiritual perspectives on the cause and the treatment of physical illness. I will also analyze the manuals of prayer therapy distributed at prayer mountains. Lastly, I will highlight the holistic benefits of prayer therapy and acknowledge its deficiency in practice.
What Are We Praying for When We Pray for Healing? Torah Perspectives
Frank Lieberman, MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Personal experiences caring for members of the author's Orthodox community and most intensely personal, supporting my wife through a series of cancer surgeries, have led me to examine my personal beliefs about the role of prayer in healing. This encompasses both prayer in the life of a physician and for the healing of a loved one. Integrating faith into the practice of scientific medicine requires a confrontation of the limitations of science, human falibility, and the manifold ways in which HaShem interacts with the created universe and with his children. In this presentation, I will present and overview of the different approaches to the role of prayer in the Jewish tradition, including the unerstanding of miracles, and propose a personal vision of the role of prayer in the professional and personal lives of physicians of faith. Rabbi David Shimshon PIncus is a major influence on the author's current approach. The talk also includes practical suggestions for supporting patients and family members in finding strength in prayer during life threatening illness.
May one pray for a patient to die while working to extend life? Navigating the inherent tension in Jewish tradition between compassion for patient suffering and the custodial obligation to protect and extend life
Daniel Eisenberg, MD, Einstein Medical Center
There is an inherent tension in the Jewish tradition between compassion for patient suffering, which would motivate a caregiver or patient to place comfort before painful treatment, and the custodial obligation created by reverence for the sanctity of the human body as a creation and possession of God, which would limit patient and caregiver autonomy to forego or curtail treatment that might extend life at the expense of increased patient anguish.
An example of this dichotomy is illustrated by the juxtaposition of these conflicting pressures within rabbinic rulings that allow a caretaker to pray for the death of the suffering patient while simultaneously performing the Jewish legal mandate to pursue lifesaving measures and avoid any action that might hasten death. This area of inquiry forces us to contemplate the role of prayer in the duty of the medical care provider.
To further illustrate the complexity of the traditional Jewish approach to the care of very ill patients, it is important to appreciate that Jewish law does not require life-prolonging care for some terminally ill patients, particularly when the treatment will not mitigate the pain or cure the underlying illness, and in fact sometimes bars the administration of such treatment to incompetent terminally-ill patients. Additionally, there is support in the Jewish tradition for avoiding resuscitation of moribund patients so as not to prolong their agony by bringing them back to an inevitably short period of suffering. On the other hand, Jewish law almost always requires the pursuit of all reasonable avenues of care for any serious illness and limits the patient’s and caregiver’s autonomy in refusing potentially efficacious life saving and life prolonging therapy even when such care might increase suffering and prolong a poor quality of life .
This nuanced approach to end of life care can only be appreciated and understood through an exploration of the rich and dynamic corpus of Jewish religious literature that stretches back over three millennia. This literature balances the intrinsic infinite value of life with the observer’s perception of apparent variability of the value of life. Through specific vignettes, the Talmud, utilizing Biblical sources, distinguishes between apparently similar cases that lead to divergent outcomes. Medieval commentators over subsequent centuries analyzed the Talmudic cases, creating rules of appropriate action in each case.
Despite this rich collection of ethical teachings, it is only through the analysis of the actual cases presented to rabbinic authorities, particularly during the rapid advance in medical knowledge and technology over the past century, that one may develop a practical approach to the subtle factors that affect ethical decision-making from a Jewish perspective and enable navigation of the precarious path through emotionally tenuous situations.
Understanding these concepts is of value to all caregivers who wish to appreciate the approach of the Jewish tradition to the spiritual and technical aspects of medical care (which balances both unswerving hope for cure with a practical understanding of the suffering brought on both by illness and its treatment) in order to effectively care for their patients.
Hope, Healing, and Jewish Prayer
Alan Mittleman, PhD, Jewish Theological Seminary
Jewish prayer expresses personal and communal hope for healing. The daily prayer book (siddur) formulates a prayer that calls upon God to heal His people, Israel, and praises Him for doing so. Although one can (and should) add personal prayer to the statutory formula, the latter asks for healing for the entire Jewish people. The daily repetition of such a prayer invites questions as to the relations among prayer, hope, and belief. This paper analyzes the relations among those concepts.
With respect to hope, contemporary philosophical treatments of hope (in both the Kantian and the analytic traditions) distinguish between the cognitive and the practical dimensions of hope. Very roughly, hope as a cognitive phenomenon must be responsive to empirical evidence; hope that flies in the face of evidence may simply be wishful or magical thinking. In its practical deployment, however, hope can be valid and valuable just insofar as it strengthens will, resolve, and meaningful moral agency, even if the chances that its object be realized are nugatory.
Insofar as Jewish petitionary prayer, here the prayer for healing, is expressive of a hope for healing what is the value of such prayer under those conditions in which recovery is highly unlikely? Is prayer in the face of long to impossible odds an engagement in irresponsible hope? Does it assume belief which is fantastic? To the extent that hope should be responsive to empirical evidence, the prayer that is expressive of it might be irrational. However, to the extent that hope is taken to support resolve and underwrite moral agency, the prayer that is expressive of it may be, in a philosophical sense, practically rational.
The philosophical analysis of hope maps onto the traditional Jewish analysis of the role of psychological intention (kavannah) in prayer. Prayer requires attention and focus—two meanings of kavannah. We have to be aware of what we say and of its status as an obligatory or commanded praxis. Does prayer also require belief in a cognitive sense, a commitment to the propositional content of the prayer? Must a Jew believe that what he or she prays for will come true? If so, then the question as to what kind of hope accompanies or is implied by prayer is forced upon us. If Jews must believe that their prayers can, in principle, come true then hope in the face of towering empirical counter-evidence might be irrational, its practical effects notwithstanding.
The paper will explore traditional Jewish teachings about intention and propositional assent vis-à-vis prayer and relate these topics to the philosophical analysis of hope, all with respect to the context of sickness and healing.
Hajung Lee, JD, PhD(s), Boston University
“Prayer Mountain” in South Korea is a sacred facility of prayers and worship open day and night for Christians with a sanctuary, accommodating facility, and individual prayer rooms. The “prayer mountain movement” began in the 1940s and kindled the development of Korean charismatic Protestantism. Today, there are more than two thousand prayer mountains in the greater Seoul area, mostly located in the secluded mountain areas. The Korean prayer mountain movement has inspired a number of Pentecostal ministers to begin prayer mountain movements in many different countries such as the Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S.A.
Many evangelical Korean Christians consider prayer mountain a place to encounter God and experience healing through fasting and prayer. Due to the high religiosity of Koreans and indigenous shamanistic influences on Korean Christianity, prayer mountain has become a popular place for evangelical Korean Christians to visit while they battle serious illnesses. When patients with incurable diseases run out of viable medical treatments, they choose prayer mountain as a last resort. These patients come to prayer mountain with the hope of experiencing healing miracles. They often pray and fast for the duration of their stay. Many ministers with spiritual gifts often lay their hands on and pray for patients. Some patients have testified that they attained complete healing from incurable diseases through this prayer therapy. Furthermore, some dying patients use the prayer mountain facility as hospice care. They stay at prayer mountains until the end of their lives and pursue spiritual peace through prayer. Some patients use alternative food therapy with prayer therapy, when they are not fasting.
Korean pentecostal and charismatic churches, in particular, have emphasized prayers and miracles through personal experience of the Holy Spirit to cure serious illness. Pastors in those streams often lay their hands over patients and pray for healing by the Holy Spirit. They offer several different views on the cause of serious illness from a spiritual standpoint, and they stress the importance of the spiritual realm in relation to physical sickness. Ministers believe that prayer therapy can cure physical illness by caring for the spirit. They encourage patients to pray and fast intensively, repent for their sins, and forgive others, in order to strengthen their spirituality. This prayer therapy at prayer mountain offers a holistic dimension of care by caring for both body and soul.
In this research, I will trace the history of prevalent prayer therapy at various prayer mountains in Korea. I will examine the theological interpretation of prayer therapy and spiritual perspectives on the cause and the treatment of physical illness. I will also analyze the manuals of prayer therapy distributed at prayer mountains. Lastly, I will highlight the holistic benefits of prayer therapy and acknowledge its deficiency in practice.
What Are We Praying for When We Pray for Healing? Torah Perspectives
Frank Lieberman, MD, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Personal experiences caring for members of the author's Orthodox community and most intensely personal, supporting my wife through a series of cancer surgeries, have led me to examine my personal beliefs about the role of prayer in healing. This encompasses both prayer in the life of a physician and for the healing of a loved one. Integrating faith into the practice of scientific medicine requires a confrontation of the limitations of science, human falibility, and the manifold ways in which HaShem interacts with the created universe and with his children. In this presentation, I will present and overview of the different approaches to the role of prayer in the Jewish tradition, including the unerstanding of miracles, and propose a personal vision of the role of prayer in the professional and personal lives of physicians of faith. Rabbi David Shimshon PIncus is a major influence on the author's current approach. The talk also includes practical suggestions for supporting patients and family members in finding strength in prayer during life threatening illness.
May one pray for a patient to die while working to extend life? Navigating the inherent tension in Jewish tradition between compassion for patient suffering and the custodial obligation to protect and extend life
Daniel Eisenberg, MD, Einstein Medical Center
There is an inherent tension in the Jewish tradition between compassion for patient suffering, which would motivate a caregiver or patient to place comfort before painful treatment, and the custodial obligation created by reverence for the sanctity of the human body as a creation and possession of God, which would limit patient and caregiver autonomy to forego or curtail treatment that might extend life at the expense of increased patient anguish.
An example of this dichotomy is illustrated by the juxtaposition of these conflicting pressures within rabbinic rulings that allow a caretaker to pray for the death of the suffering patient while simultaneously performing the Jewish legal mandate to pursue lifesaving measures and avoid any action that might hasten death. This area of inquiry forces us to contemplate the role of prayer in the duty of the medical care provider.
To further illustrate the complexity of the traditional Jewish approach to the care of very ill patients, it is important to appreciate that Jewish law does not require life-prolonging care for some terminally ill patients, particularly when the treatment will not mitigate the pain or cure the underlying illness, and in fact sometimes bars the administration of such treatment to incompetent terminally-ill patients. Additionally, there is support in the Jewish tradition for avoiding resuscitation of moribund patients so as not to prolong their agony by bringing them back to an inevitably short period of suffering. On the other hand, Jewish law almost always requires the pursuit of all reasonable avenues of care for any serious illness and limits the patient’s and caregiver’s autonomy in refusing potentially efficacious life saving and life prolonging therapy even when such care might increase suffering and prolong a poor quality of life .
This nuanced approach to end of life care can only be appreciated and understood through an exploration of the rich and dynamic corpus of Jewish religious literature that stretches back over three millennia. This literature balances the intrinsic infinite value of life with the observer’s perception of apparent variability of the value of life. Through specific vignettes, the Talmud, utilizing Biblical sources, distinguishes between apparently similar cases that lead to divergent outcomes. Medieval commentators over subsequent centuries analyzed the Talmudic cases, creating rules of appropriate action in each case.
Despite this rich collection of ethical teachings, it is only through the analysis of the actual cases presented to rabbinic authorities, particularly during the rapid advance in medical knowledge and technology over the past century, that one may develop a practical approach to the subtle factors that affect ethical decision-making from a Jewish perspective and enable navigation of the precarious path through emotionally tenuous situations.
Understanding these concepts is of value to all caregivers who wish to appreciate the approach of the Jewish tradition to the spiritual and technical aspects of medical care (which balances both unswerving hope for cure with a practical understanding of the suffering brought on both by illness and its treatment) in order to effectively care for their patients.
Hope, Healing, and Jewish Prayer
Alan Mittleman, PhD, Jewish Theological Seminary
Jewish prayer expresses personal and communal hope for healing. The daily prayer book (siddur) formulates a prayer that calls upon God to heal His people, Israel, and praises Him for doing so. Although one can (and should) add personal prayer to the statutory formula, the latter asks for healing for the entire Jewish people. The daily repetition of such a prayer invites questions as to the relations among prayer, hope, and belief. This paper analyzes the relations among those concepts.
With respect to hope, contemporary philosophical treatments of hope (in both the Kantian and the analytic traditions) distinguish between the cognitive and the practical dimensions of hope. Very roughly, hope as a cognitive phenomenon must be responsive to empirical evidence; hope that flies in the face of evidence may simply be wishful or magical thinking. In its practical deployment, however, hope can be valid and valuable just insofar as it strengthens will, resolve, and meaningful moral agency, even if the chances that its object be realized are nugatory.
Insofar as Jewish petitionary prayer, here the prayer for healing, is expressive of a hope for healing what is the value of such prayer under those conditions in which recovery is highly unlikely? Is prayer in the face of long to impossible odds an engagement in irresponsible hope? Does it assume belief which is fantastic? To the extent that hope should be responsive to empirical evidence, the prayer that is expressive of it might be irrational. However, to the extent that hope is taken to support resolve and underwrite moral agency, the prayer that is expressive of it may be, in a philosophical sense, practically rational.
The philosophical analysis of hope maps onto the traditional Jewish analysis of the role of psychological intention (kavannah) in prayer. Prayer requires attention and focus—two meanings of kavannah. We have to be aware of what we say and of its status as an obligatory or commanded praxis. Does prayer also require belief in a cognitive sense, a commitment to the propositional content of the prayer? Must a Jew believe that what he or she prays for will come true? If so, then the question as to what kind of hope accompanies or is implied by prayer is forced upon us. If Jews must believe that their prayers can, in principle, come true then hope in the face of towering empirical counter-evidence might be irrational, its practical effects notwithstanding.
The paper will explore traditional Jewish teachings about intention and propositional assent vis-à-vis prayer and relate these topics to the philosophical analysis of hope, all with respect to the context of sickness and healing.