Say, Whatever Happened to the Arizal’s Conversion Therapy?
From a Times of Israel summary of a recent Israeli TV exposé (I can’t read most of the article, because of my filter):
Chassidic yeshivas routinely send students with homosexual tendencies to psychiatrists. Cooperative doctors then prescribe the patients Paroxetine and Risperidone, an antipsychotic used to treat schizophrenia.
Heh heh, they’re probably the same cooperative psychiatrists that help yeshiva students get out of military servitude by certifying them as dangerously insane…
Indeed, the penultimate paragraph is a howler:
The paper said Health Ministry officials did not believe the hearings would yield any punishments, as three of the four psychiatrists had previously been investigated after similar claims arose over the past decade.
Anyway, here’s what I don’t understand. Whatever happened to the Arizal’s tikkunim?! The Arizal explicitly promised that whoever follows his instructions would rid himself of untoward urges!
Now, the Arizal passed away over 500 years ago. I figure the absence of any comment to the contrary in our own literature (even post the Sabbatean horror!) implies these remedies really do work and are “traditional”. Why not start, at least, with the Jewish method?! Which option bears fewer side effects, eh?
Perhaps S. Tzvi ימ”ש later “contaminated” the pre-existing Tikkunim (like how his restoration of Birkas Kohanim in Chu”l was reversed, wrongly or rightly, כדי שלא להניח שם למינים), but shouldn’t there be an expiration date for this logic? It’s long been an “עבודה זרה שבטלה”!
(Note: I’m using borrowed terms here. As for actual “conversion therapy”, that’s been banned by the Israel Medical Association since Menachem Av, 5779.)
Koheles 1:9-11:
מַה שֶּׁהָיָה הוּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶה וּמַה שֶּׁנַּעֲשָׂה הוּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂה וְאֵין כָּל חָדָשׁ תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ. יֵשׁ דָּבָר שֶׁיֹּאמַר רְאֵה זֶה חָדָשׁ הוּא כְּבָר הָיָה לְעֹלָמִים אֲשֶׁר הָיָה מִלְּפָנֵנוּ. אֵין זִכְרוֹן לָרִאשֹׁנִים וְגַם לָאַחֲרֹנִים שֶׁיִּהְיוּ לֹא יִהְיֶה לָהֶם זִכָּרוֹן עִם שֶׁיִּהְיוּ לָאַחֲרֹנָה.
What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. There is a thing of which [someone] will say, “See this, it is new.” It has already been for ages which were before us. [But] there is no remembrance of former [generations], neither will the later ones that will be have any remembrance among those that will be afterwards.
(Source: Chabad.org translation)
Did we forget our own mystical Masores?
Disclaimer:
The article is for educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace your relationship with a healthcare professional.