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Dec. 8, 2006
Give the gift of health
Chanukah is a time for the physical and spirutal.
Rebeca Kuropatwa
Health can be understood as encompassing physical, spiritual and
mental aspects. So how exactly could a person give a gift of health
this Chanukah season?
Gift-giving should not be about receiving, but about giving to enrich
the life of the recipient. There are a variety of health-promoting
gifts one can give – gifts that keep on giving – as was
the case of the shemen zayit (olive oil) that lasted eight
days and eights nights, enabling the Jews to salvage the Temple
in the story of Chanukah.
Gifts of health help improve the quality of life of the people to
whom we are giving them.
"It is about giving a gift that the other person will benefit
continually from," said Amichai Bakerman, an independent consultant
who specializes in health and wellness. According to Bakerman, one
way to look at a healthy gift is as "an investment in yourself,
whether that be with certain products or books; a gift that has
more than a one-time use that you or the receiver will benefit from,
from this day forward – forever. Why waste money on things
that are only temporary?"
Of course, gift-giving also depends on the recipient.
"If you are giving to a person who has everything," said
accountant Larry Cohen, "it is best to give something that
has a special sentimental value. But, if you are giving to someone
who does not have a lot, it would mean a lot more to give them something
they can really use or need."
"Giving a gift of health," said spiritual leader Richard
Muller, "is very much connected with giving a gift of self.
One year, my wife and I did this. We offered our time, babysitting
hours or a dinner spent together to our family and friends. It is
something of personal value that can be spread throughout the year.
The best thing about a gift is when it reflects the intimacy, love
and caring between the giver and the receiver."
University of Manitoba Prof. Haskel Greenfield said, "There
are only two ethnic groups who, when they are saying a toast over
a drink, specifically toast to good health – Jews and Serbs.
Most groups do toast to life, in general, but not health, per se.
"Getting a gift of health, to me," he continued, "means
I've got to start exercising. What I really need is a membership
to the Rady Centre, but right now my wife, Tina, and I put all of
our resources into our kids. Each year, we buy them a season's pass
to the Stony Mountain Ski Resort. That way, every winter weekend,
they are outdoors and active, instead of just sitting at home and
watching TV."
Balance is the key to health.
"In Judaism, it is very unbalanced," said Greenfield.
"There is no tradition of exercising the body. It is all about
education - exercising the mind. This can possibly be traced back
to Jewish opposition to hedonism, beginning with Alexander the Great
in 331 BCE. The Maccabean revolt was really about two opposing views:
religious Judaism and its value of the mind versus modern, secular
humanism and its emphasis on the physical. Today, ultra-Orthodox
Jews [Charedim] in Israel refuse army service, but modern
Orthodox Jews go to the army. There is a growing shift in the 20th
century of connecting exercising the mind to exercising the body.
"Essentially, the Jewish concept of health should include ensuring
both physical and mental health," concluded Greenfield. "It
shouldn't be that we buy into Christian values, making Chanukah
like [a] modern-day Christmas, giving toys, money and chocolates.
The story of Chanukah and the Maccabees is one of a battle between
religious traditions and modernism."
Changing gears in gift-giving is as simple as changing the approach.
David Schulman, Winnipeg National Conference of Synagogue Youth
advisor, said, "It is a matter of doing something a little
more meaningful spiritually. You can remind your family, friends
and the world to take the opportunity to reflect on the serenity
of lighting a new Chanukah candle each night, getting in touch with
our 'inner flame.' We can take the time to think about what is important
for the world. We can start doing this within our own four walls
– with our own families. On Chanukah, we don't have the usual
trappings of other holidays, where there are a lot of rigid rituals.
It is a holiday rooted in a fight over ideas, where we stand up
to the Greek idealization of the physical. The original idea for
giving children Chanukah gelt comes from parents rewarding their
children for continuing in the study of Torah, despite this practice
having had been outlawed. Judaism is all about taking the physical
and elevating it into the spiritual."
Some ideas for health-oriented gifts are a self-development book,
membership to a Jewish community centre, nutritional health supplements
or a healthy cooking cookbook and cookware. Gifts of health can
be found at bookstores, via a health consultant or by flipping through
the Yellow Pages.
For more information about kosher nutritional supplements, cookware
that helps enhance the nutritional value of food and a healthy recipe
book, contact [email protected].
As well, self-improvement books by Aryah Kaplan, Perle Besserman
and Alfred Koltach are available at bookstores such as Chapters.
Rebeca Kuropatwa is a freelance writer living in Winnipeg.
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