Connecticut

by Dr. David Fialkoff, Editor / Publisher

As the 5th licensed naturopathic doctor in Connecticut (outside of Greenwich, the county closest to New York City), I was a pioneer. That was in 1983, long before Walmart carried organic food products (long before there was a Walmart). People came to me from near and far at the end of their ropes. They had been everywhere and tried everything. I could have named my office the Last Chance Clinic.

Connecticut, "the land of steady habits," was socially conservative. Right at the start of the first visit, not uncommonly, there was this exchange:

If you've never been involved with the police or the courts, you can believe that the "justice system" dispenses justice. If you've never been sick, you can believe that the medical establishment is about restoring health. Say what you will about Robert Kennedy, he's correct that America is much, much sicker than it was when we were kids (as is Mexico and...).

With homeopathic treatment, many of my patients were, in fact, restored to health. When they were, in their eyes, I became a wise person. As such, sometimes they asked me non-medical questions. One inquiry that came up with some frequency over my 23 years of practice was, did I believe in past lives. My standard response was, "I don't even believe in this life, at least not the way we imagine it." That is, our day-to-day perceptions do not rise to the level of reality. They are only some sort of shorthand that our brain makes to help us navigate the world, to keep us putting one foot in front of the other.

We all know the trick: good wine is placed into cheap bottles; cheap wine is placed into good bottles; and people prefer whatever comes out of the good bottle. Taking this a step further: studies measuring brain activity during this deceptive wine tasting show that the pleasure centers of the brain light up more with the cheap wine. Not only the tongue, but the brain's neurology is tricked as well. This calls into question reality itself. After all, if the electroencephalogram shows that the brain itself is getting more pleasure from the cheap wine than it is from the good wine, then isn't the cheap wine "objectively" better?

This same "test of reality" shows in the fact that people who believe in an intelligent, purposeful cosmos (formerly known as "God") live longer, happier, healthier lives. And ultimately aren't longer, happier, healthier lives the best measure of truth?

By a similar standard, many stories in the Bible are true in that they convey profound truths about our human condition. For example, in only 17 sentences, the story of Cain and Abel relates some of the deepest truths regarding mankind: jealousy, envy, self-justification, brotherly strife, murder, the transition from a hunter-gatherer culture to an agrarian culture (the herds of Abel and the fruits of Cain), exile, being marked... Is the story of Cain and Abel not at least as true as what happened to you in the supermarket today?

In his book, The Gift of the Jews, Thomas Cahill asserts that Judaism introduced the idea of progress, teleology, that history is moving forward to a utopian denouement. Egyptian pharaohs, Chinese emperors and Indian rajas ruled over advanced kingdoms. However, those kingdoms were already "complete," static. Time was circular, ever recurring. Everything was already perfect, just the way it was supposed to be, at least for the pharaoh, emperor or raja. The revolutionary Jew has always been a problem for the ruling class with his upsetting insistence that things could be better: labor unions, civil rights, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Jesus...

Last week we celebrated the Jewish holiday of Purim, the anniversary of an ancient battle in Persia (modern day Iran), yet another time our enemies tried to exterminate us and we won. The story centers on a Jewish hero who refuses to bow down to evil.

Today, in an example of the circularity of time, there is another battle taking place in Persia/Iran. This too involves enemies threatening the extermination of the Jews (but then the Christians as well; "First the Saturday people and then the Sunday people") because they refuse to bow to Islam's "destiny" of world-conquest.

Authorities have always been bothered by the refusal of the Jews to bow down, to get in line. Throughout Europe, throughout the centuries, congregants went to church and listened to the priest or minister's exhortations to conform. But on their way home from church, they encountered Jews, who did not conform. In this the Jews have always represented freedom, that things could be done a different way.

In the Purim story, a wicked minister convinces a foolish king to sign an edict authorizing the extermination of the Jews. Fate intervenes, in the form of a secretly Jewish queen, and the Jews are given the power to defend themselves. Thus, the day that was designated for their destruction becomes for them a great victory over their enemies; enemies, who, as in today's "Persian" war, despite a vast array of power arrayed against them, stupidly persisted in their Jew hatred.

Purim, a day of wild, inebriated celebration, shares its name, "pur," with Yom Ki'pur, the solemn Day of Atonement. In Hebrew the prefix "ki" means "like." So, the Day of Atonement is ki'pur, like Purim. That is, the revival that can be accomplished by sadness (over our inadequacy and failings) on Yom Ki'pur, can be accomplished through joy on Purim.

Connecticut
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The main theme, the chief "reality" of the story of Purim is that fortune can change, darkness (the royal edict of destruction) can be converted to light (victory over negativity). Through belief in a Higher Order, and through their efforts, the Jews altered their destiny (regime change, then and now). Individual dignity and freedom move things forward. Effort and belief make the difference in our personal lives and in society as a whole. That is the Gift of the Jews, the most important, most sacred truth.

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