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http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
I USED TO ENVY the dinosaurs. It was during a period of extensive dental repair, when
every Tuesday afternoon for an entire year, instead of participating with the rest of my class
in physical education (which I enjoyed), I was excused to go to the dentist (which I didn't
enjoy). I graduated with shiny silver fillings in all of my teeth, barring the front eight. The
dinosaurs, on the other hand, never needed fillings. Their teeth, so I had read, fell out
immediately upon the first signs of decay and new ones always grew in their place. For years, I
had dreamed of dinosaur teeth, but to no avail.
As I grew older, other disturbing signs of physical vulnerability and deterioration
inherent in the human species caught my eye. Yet my friends and I hardly ever mentioned health
matters other than pregnancies. Not because we were squeamish or superstitious, but simply
because, on the whole, we personally had nothing much to discuss. Aside from an occasional cold
or cavity, everyone we knew was in fairly good shape. Only elderly, grandmotherly types seemed
to derive pleasure from detailed discussions about doctors, hospitals, medicines, and assorted
"kreinkin". We found them dull.
Then one day, I happened to hear something I was saying. To my utter surprise, I was
saying it just like one of those elderly grand-mothers! And to top things off, the woman I was
talking to sounded exactly like me.
That night I reviewed the health status of some of my closest friends. I listed the
various doctors, medical problems, cures and regimes they and we had gone through and I made an
astounding discovery. We were falling apart! Together, we claimed complete and comprehensive
x-rays of the digestive tract, the spinal cord, the reproductive and the respiratory systems.
Our blood pressure was too high or too low, our sinuses were full, our allergies active.
We suffered from crooked toes, slipped discs, fallen arches, acidic stomachs. Not to
speak of dry skin, graying hair, and receding gums. Our teeth had been filled, capped, pulled
and replaced. Our eyes were covered with contacts or framed in bi- or tri-focals and our
memories were failing. A few husbands had bypasses and balloons, and although they were all in
good condition, thank G-d, it shook them up nonetheless. The only ailment which didn't appear on
my list was ears. No one I knew had a hearing aid, although several people suffered from very
selective hearing (they heard only the things they wanted to hear). Today, several years later,
I have added two hearing aids to the list.
I sat there trembling, looking for my pulse and wondering if I could still make it
unaided into bed. "I don't understand," I mumbled to my husband. "We're all so young! At this
rate we might as well put our affairs in order and reserve a room in Intensive Care!"
"Good idea," he mumbled back. "I'll take care of it first thing in the morning." (He
automatically agrees with anything I suggest when he's busy with something else. Long ago, he
realized that agreeing saves further discussion and puts an end to my interruptions.)
That night, as I said the Hamapil prayer after the Shema ("and may you light up my eyes
lest I sleep the sleep of death...") I had visions of not having any more visions. I shuddered;
but then my rational side took over.
"For heaven's sake!" I told myself. "Calm down. Keep things in perspective. You may not
be twenty anymore, but what's wrong with thirty?"
"Nothing!" I answered indignantly. "Except that I'm not thirty anymore either. Come to
think of it (and I usually try not to), I'm not sure I can remember forty so well!"
"Fiddlesticks!" said my peppier half. "Tomorrow we'll go for a swim and then for nice,
long walk and you'll see what good shape you're in!"
Well, to make a long story short, I didn't get to the pool because I was too tired to get
out of bed. But I did go for a walk. I chose a careful no-ups-no-downs path. Jerusalem, being
what it is, is hilly. Which means that only fools walk downhill too long unless they have a car
waiting to take them back up. My path was straight and true, just the kind a Jew should walk.
But my husband insisted that my straight, honest path was not what I wanted.
"That's no fun," I said. "I won't get a chance to talk to anyone. It's boring walking
alone."
"I'll walk with you," he offered. "From a quarter to six until six-fifteen. I have to be
at Shacharis (morning prayers) at six-thirty."
"Shacharis at six-thirty?" I wondered. "Since when are they davening Shacharis at
suppertime?"
"Six-thirty in the morning!" he replied in a slightly exasperated tone.
I gasped for breath. "You want me to go out walking at a quarter to six in the morning?
There are dangerous vapors in the air at that hour. I could catch bronchitis and choke to
death. Besides, my body doesn't move that early. I think I don't get my soul back from the
Upper Regions until around seven-thirty."
"Well, I have to start teaching by seven-thirty, so if you're not willing to go earlier,
you'll have to go alone."
I tried to understand why a husband who is so understanding couldn't understand that it's
not that his wife wouldn't go with him, but that she couldn't go with. Not at that hour! Some
things are too dangerous to contemplate, even for the sake of good health. If a germ hit me
that early in the day, I'd collapse immediately and then who would keep the family going?
"Very well," said my spouse on his way out. "but just remember. If you want to stay thin
and spry and healthy, you'd better get started on some kind of regime!"
Regime? Who said anything about a regime? All I had in mind was a stroll every so often.
And if strolling wasn't enough, there were dozens of other activities I could partake of.
Dancing, for example. Lots of women in the neighborhood go in for Israeli folk- dancing. I knew
of at least three different groups a mere two or three blocks from my house. I'd look into it.
I did, but it turned out that the first group met too early in the evening; the second
group met too late. The third group met on a morning I couldn't come. So I went to a fourth
group in another neighborhood but I quickly discovered that their class was much too advanced.
They flew around so rapidly that one could barely keep enough oxygen in one's lungs. A little
healthy exercise is a good thing, but I don't believe in overdoing it.
I would have forgotten the entire episode and gone on with exercising my fingers at the
computer but my family seemed to feel that I should not sit still. At that point, I rebelled.
"Sit still? Who sits still? When did anyone ever see me sit still in this house? Besides,
think of the accidents which are caused by people moving around too much or too quickly! No one
ever got hurt by sitting still!"
But it didn't help. My family is a determined bunch and once they decided I should walk,
my car keys were mysteriously "misplaced" and my monthly bus ticket disappeared from my purse.
Fortunately, most of my friends drive, so I survived the month without serious side-effects.
But it did start me thinking. (It's too bad mental gymnastics aren't considered exercise ...)
"In the Old Days (whenever that was...) people didn't consciously exercise," I thought.
"They just lived. So why is exercise necessary today? And why does staying healthy require so
many doctors and medicines today? The body has wonderful healing powers, if we only give it a
chance. More rest and less stress! That's what we need! Just last week, my doctor assured me
that with medicine my cold would go away in seven days, and without the medicine, it would take
a week. Why don't people have the patience to wait a week? Must everything be instantly cured?
And why does every lump look like cancer and every headache feel like a tumor, G-d forbid? And
who says everyone has to be so thin???
"Society is obviously in the throes of a debilitating health crisis. Common sense and
self-confidence have disappeared! No one knows what's good for them anymore! They all rush
around looking for the latest health hint, the newest fad, the ultimate piece of wisdom." Which
led me to a startling revelation.
I have a very permanent sort of personality; I don't like changes. But this health
business is all so temporary. You get something in good working order, and then the minute you
look the other way, whammo! It's back to the way it was in the first place. The people in
charge are always changing their minds too.
Jogging is great. Jogging is not so great. It hurts the heels and the back and the knees.
Fiber is just what the system needs. Well yes, but only a little.
Eggs are bad. No they're not; they're good. Vitamins are good too.
Ah yes, that is, maybe; but then again, maybe you don't need them. In fact, the
mega-vitamins may have all sorts of side effects. Fruits and vegetables are what you really
need.
Not if they're sprayed, you don't!
I have seen eggs, fish (all that mercury), dairy products, sugar, flour, even corn
flakes and chocolate (that ultimate ambrosia!) vacillate between the blessed and the damned.
It's hard to keep up with all the new decisions.
It makes me wonder about Adam and Eve. They were perfect physical creations. Did they ever
catch a cold? Pull a muscle? Get an upset stomach? When did serious illnesses set in? How many
illnesses are man-made, a result of degenerate living, stress, a despoiled environment? When I
think too much about these things, I get a headache.
A rabbi once told me that the Talmud says we are surrounded by shadim v'ruchos - evil
spirits - and other invisible forces. G-d, in His mercy, keeps them from our sight. If we were
aware of them all, we'd be paralyzed from fright. "Just look at a glass of water under a
microscope," he said. "It's enough to make you stop drinking!" I think of that often. It may
very well be the reason I began drinking Coca Cola.
My husband doesn't drink Coca Cola. Nor does he particularly like whip cream. He eats
cake one slice per sitting and never takes more than two cookies at a time. He thinks that
chocolate bars are divided so that you can break off one or two squares and save the rest for a
rainy day. Sometimes, he refuses desert because he is "full". He does not eat when he is not
hungry. He doesn't do this on principle. He sincerely believes this is a normal way of
behaving. He lives Maimonides. "Everything in measure and it's always good to leave the table a
little hungry." It is very difficult to explain the temptations of a chocophile to a disciple
of Maimonides.
Unfortunately, our world seems to specialize in temptations injurious to good health, and
it's a tough job resisting them. But resist we must, for healthy lives can only be lived in
healthy bodies, which are the ideal home for healthy souls. And when shall we begin, if not at
the beginning of a new Hebrew/Jewish year?
So get out your walking shoes and put away that candy bar and I'll meet you in the
morning. But please, just don't make it too
Jewish World Review Oct. 13, 1999 / 3 Mar-Cheshvan, 5760
A matter of health
By Yaffa Ganz
"You think that walking means a block here, a block there, and a stop to window-shop every
three yards. You don't get any exercise that way! You have to walk at a brisk, steady pace for
at least half an hour without stopping all the time."
Yaffa Ganz is the award winning author of Cinnamon and Myrrh and All Things Considered (Mesorah Publications N.Y.). She has written more than forty Jewish juvenile titles including Sand and Stars --- a 2000 year saga of Jewish
history for teen readers. You may contact her by clicking here.
