Shalvah Program of Congregation Neve Shalom

Shalvah meets every Thursday, 7 to 8 PM

Welcome to The Shalvah Program of Congregation Neve Shalom. Shalvah means “serenity” in Hebrew. Shalvah is dedicated to teaching the strategies to help individuals, their families, friends, and communities, work themselves free of the problems associated with addiction.

The above is how we begin our meeting every Thursday night at the synagogue that I call Shalvah. The meeting is a transformative circle within which individuals grow and change in often astonishing ways. It is a circle of non-theoretical teshuvah, in every sense.

Every meeting begins with the above Preamble, often followed by a teaching relating recovery wisdom to Jewish wisdom, then followed by a speaker (one of the group). The meeting sounds and feels much like an AA meeting, or Alanon (we all meet together, recovering addicts and family members) but it’s not AA or Alanon. It’s Shalvah and we have developed our own guidelines.

We run an ad once a month in the local Jewish paper but most people find their way to us through reputation. The meeting has begun to attract non-Jews as well. We welcome everyone. Some of our teachings can be found on the synagogue web site and on my blog, www.stonegoodman.com/blog (see category “Recovering”).

We have been successful in every way. In this series, we have been meeting every Thursday night. How do we define success? Only one way, led by the Psalmist (90:17), through the works of our hands. It’s been life changing.

Shalvah teaches an integrated approach, combining spiritual and psychological resources, acting as a bridge between the recovery model and the daily spiritual remedies of Judaism (and other traditions).

Shalvah was organized in 1998 as a project of Congregation Neve Shalom, to claim the healing work of recovery for the synagogue.

Shalvah was preceded by Slicha, the St. Louis Information Committee and Hotline on Addiction, an effort organized by Rose Mass, LCSW, and Rabbi James Goodman in 1981. Slicha held weekly meetings, educating community professionals, care-givers, parents, schools and children to be pro-active with strategies as well as to respond to problems occasioned by substance abuse.

The Shalvah program of Congregation Neve Shalom is hosting a weekly meeting, designed for those suffering from problems associated with alcoholism and chemical dependency, family members, and friends. The purpose of the meeting is to connect traditional spiritual resources with the Twelve Step model.

If you would like to be on our mailing list, you can send an e-mail address to Rabbi Goodman. Also, you might want to sign on to the recovery listserv on the Neve Shalom web site, find the “recovery” button and register for the teachings.

Before we close, we say a prayer for healing

for the healing of the spirit and the healing of the body, for those we know for those we don't know, r'fuat ha-nefesh r'fuat ha-guf,

on my left the angel Michael

on my right the angel Gavriel

in front of me the angel Uriel

behind me the angel Raphael

and above my head --

Shekhinat El.

Lastly, we remember those who have gone before us.

We measure our grief

in years

one year, two years, twenty, thirty five.

I am softening to my sadness

daily

in a year of days

I remember I don't remember

every minute.

I want the seconds back.

These are the chapters of my life.

Master of all the worlds --

do not save me from my tears

let them pour like a fountain

and cleanse me.

Let my tears wash me clean.

 

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps — [Step 12]
We are about to have tea. [Ex. 24:10-11]
Muse of rooted serenity and integration
Let peace rise from the kitchen
Let us repair the world from our seats at the table.

Master of the Universe --

Shall we save ourselves and not help others?
We want peace and we want it now
We are starving for it
For it and the living God
For everything that issues from Your mouth. [Deut.8:3]

We will receive each of us to our own capacity [Ex.16:21]
Along this journey of secret destinations
Instruments of the working out of all things partial becoming whole
Schooled by nothing loftier than the poetry of our own lives

Our hearts unzipped because God entered

through our wounds


The last place we expected.

Amen.