My daughter is getting married next month and I have decided to give a free copy of my booklet, Homeopathy for Acute Family Care, to all my readers and patients in the merit of all the mothers, and with gratitude to God for this wonderful celebration of life that she has brought to us all.
A wedding is such a statement of hope for the future. It speak to tradition and values of pure intent - a public commitment and a communal celebration of a couples love, trust and hope for their future. Today, as women are more and more financially, emotionally and sexually independent, a wedding speaks about something transcendent, something that values connection and spiritual partnership. And as we watch our daughter grow into young women, even though they are so independent and strong and able, there's something deeply comforting in the knowledge that they are also vulnerable and brave enough to allow themselves to be loved by an-other.
As mother's we watch our young adult children rise from the ashes over and over and over again with each of life's impossible decisions, heartbreaks, tragedies, losses and rejections. And we can do nothing but love them from a distance and trust their process. So when they succeed in their careers, or in finding their creative inspiration or move through difficulties with grace or find and commit to love, it brings so much joy.
In the Jewish tradition, we often hear the phrase, in the merit of the mothers. The mothers refer to the four pillars or Jewish womanhood, embodied by the biblical Sarah, Rivkah (Rebecca), Rochel (Rachel) and Leah. But when we read their stories, we find that none of them had an easy life. The challenges they faced as women, brides, young wives and mothers were difficult and often heartbreaking but their decisions, actions and responses are considered meritorious, formidable and grounded in wisdom. And these are the merits about which we speak.
Sarah instructs her husband Avraham to make some difficult choices and God instructs him to listen to her. Her gift to womanhood is intuition and discrimination - the ability to know the difference between right and wrong and the courage to make difficult decisions based on that knowledge. Sara only conceived late in her life and then Avraham took her beloved only son (Yitzchak) up the mountains to sacrifice him. At the last minute Avraham was directed not to sacrifice his remaining son, (as was the custom of many of the idolatrous tribes), but Sarah died before they returned. She is buried alongside Avraham in the Cave of Machpella in Hebron, Israel as is Yitzchak, Rivkah, Yaakov and Leah.
Rivkah carried twins in her womb. One child was righteous -Yaakov (Jacob), the other concerned only with self gratification - Esau (Esav). She too embodies intuition and discrimination but she also is able to hold the dichotomy, the yin and yang of life, the inevitable polarity of opposites and the exploration of the shadow in all its torturous necessity. With the subtle hand of a wise woman she directs the her dying husband (Yitzchak) to bless the righteous (younger) son instead of the older one. Much of mystical Judaism is centered around this principle of leading with the stronger hand to favor kindness, and justice over strictness and restraint.
Leah brings pragmatism and partnership, embracing the active masculine through her marriage to Yaakov and her commitment to the propagation of the tribe. She concerns herself with holding the energy of the family unit, of the womenfolk, the sisters, the mothers. She gives her life over to a higher cause, to establish and maintain security on the home-front. Again, she intuits, and discriminates, along with her sister to direct Yaakov to do the right thing by marrying her as well as her sister Rochel whom he loves. And she also embodies the the polarity of opposites, but she brings foundation, grounded action in the world.
Rochel, who died on the road to Hevron giving birth, represents martyrdom in its most primal and selfless expression and there isn't a mother among us who doesn't understand what that means. Though martyrdom has a bad rap, it reflects an archetypal truth, the mother sacrifices herself for her child, biologically, energetically, and emotionally, and through that process she nullifies her own ego to a life of service without gratification. She also faces her own mortality. And it is these traits that we refer to when we speak of the merit of the mothers.
It's been a rough few years for us all and we're all a little shellshocked. For many of us who tend towards natural and holistic health, we have been confronted with differences of opinion, pressure to conform and forced or chosen period of separation and isolation from family and friends. Our intuition has been challenged and questioned, pushed up against the massive powers of media and marketing and sharpened in the process. We have come to terms with polarity, with conflict, with opposition even within marriages and close family relationships. We have maintained the family unit through it all, feeding our children and caring for our homes. And we have been sacrificed and silenced. And now we are back in the world, celebrating the ordinary and the extra-ordinary.
And so in the merit of the mothers, our ancestors, the grandmothers, the mother's, the brides, the maidens and the little girls, I acknowledge and give thanks for this immense blessing which I celebrate together with you all.
About the book
I have designed this book to be user friendly to parents, with big fonts and catagory headings that are easy to find - because we can't always find our glasses in the middle of the night or in an emergency. While simple, the style is also child friendly so that your children may identify with the characters, have positive memories of healing with homeopathy, and continue with the tradition of using homeopathy with their own families one day.
Categories include burns, coughs, gastric, chicken pox, hand foot and mouth, teething etc. as well as dosing instructions and you can print out the charts on the last pages for quick reference. There are also a few pages on the bigger constitutional remedies for those interested, though constitutional or chronic treatment should only be done under the direction of a well trained classical homeopath.
I will be unavailable for consultations from the 4-10June, but I am always available for emergencies via WhatsApp. I hope you enjoy this booklet. You can find a link here to the book on Amazon if you wish to purchase a soft covered copy for yourselves or as a gift for a loved one.
Click below to download a PDF copy of Homeopathy for Acute Family Care
Rebecca Bermeister is a certified Classical Homeopath available for online consultations or treatments from her home clinic in Pardes Chanah, Israel.
She can be reached via her webpage www.rebhomeopath.com
email - rebhomeopath@gmail.com
Whatsapp - +972(0)547793606
and Homeopathy for Acute Family Care may be purchased here.