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06 August 2009

Can Ritual Become Obsession


"Ritual complements Ethics in Jewish law,

but Orthodoxy and ultra-Orthodoxy seem in recent years to have put greater stress on ritual and on praising those who observe it pedantically. Thus it may be difficult to distinguish a simply devout person who is meticulous in his observances from one who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)."

"In 2001, psychiatrists Prof. David Greenberg and Prof. Eliezer Witztum of Jerusalem's Herzog Hospital wrote their pathfinding volume Sanity & Sanctity: Mental Health Work Among the Ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem, published by Yale University Press, that devoted a few chapters to OCD in this community. But it was an academic volume and not a guide to the treatment of OCD."

"Now Dr. Avigdor (Victor) Bonchek (drbonchek@013.net), a long-time Jerusalem psychologist and ordained Orthodox rabbi, has written a $30 book called Religious Compulsions and Fears: A Guide to Treatment. Released by Feldheim Publishers (www.feldheim.com) in Jerusalem, it is prefaced with a note of approval by Rabbi Abraham Twersky, a hassidic scholar and well-known psychiatrist living in New Jersey who specializes in treating substance abuse. His name on the cover alone is enough to encourage many observant Jews to read it. Twersky writes that in his 45 yeas as a psychiatrist, he has noted a "marked increase" in the prevalence of OCD. "It is unclear whether this is due to a greater awareness of the condition or an actual increase in its incidence."

"Born in Cleveland, a student at Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, ordained by the Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore and a graduate in clinical psychology from New York University, Bonchek came on aliya with his family in 1971. He taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's School of Education and School of Social Work for 30 years, and has long had a private practice, during which he treated a large number of OCD patients, many of them religious."

"He gives partial credit for his ideas and techniques to two mentors: Dr. Joseph Wolpe of Temple University who pioneered behavior therapy in the 1950s and Dr. Giorio Nardone of Italy, a strategic therapist with whom Bonchek studied for several summers. While he would like OCD sufferers and family members to read his new book, Bonchek doesn't regard it as a "Do It Yourself" volume allowing people to treat the condition without being examined and supervised by a professional."

"A father of six, Bonchek compares observing the commandments of the Torah to "holding a young dove in one's hands. If he grasps it too tightly, he kills it. If he does not hold it firmly enough, it will fly away, and he will lose it. There needs to be a delicate balance to fulfill the Torah's commandments in a healthy way."


Read the complete article


"Scrupulosity is a term given birth to in the 1600s.

Today, it is a well-documented form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It is typically evident in people who believe that their religious behavior is in some way displeasing or disrespectful to Hashem ... One of the great Chassidishe Rebbes, Rabbi Nahum of Stephanesht described the intertwining of these elements in Scrupulosity: “Scrupulosity is a cloak made of pride, lined with guilt and sewn with melancholia.” As a result, many engage in repetitive and excessive prayer or other religious behavior to correct the pain, as part of the disorder."

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There have been many upsetting occurrences in the Orthodox World in recent times, from the modesty patrols, annuling marriages over clothing styles, stone-throwing for not wearing socks, abusive physical attack on non-hareidi male and female teenagers seen together, women molested on buses for sitting in 'wrong' seat, abuse of children, wife-beating, parents attacking (& killing) their children, teen suicides, children abandoning their parents' faith, and the list is pathetic and heart-wrenching.

These are all symptoms of mores gone awry.



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