To what extent is a healthy body a Torah issue?
How is living a healthy lifestyle good for you? Why is it so hard to achieve?
What wisdom does the Torah offer for creating healthier habits?
"Ninety-nine percent of illness is due to people neglecting their health."
There is a growing awareness that the Jewish community has not paid enough attention to this mitzvah. We have the same health stats as the general public. We have tragic levels of preventable conditions such as diabetes and cardio-vascular disease. Our mission as the Jewish People is greatly handicapped because we are not meeting this challenge. Yet we have tremendous Torah wisdom and medical knowledge on how to improve this situation! We have 3,000 years of wisdom on this subject, but until now it has been scattered across many books, most of which have never been translated.
In partnership with doctors and dietitians, the program includes current medical information (with references to medical literature) on what is known about nutrition, exercise, weight loss and longevity.
We hope that this combination of Torah wisdom and medical knowledge will increase awareness of how vital and easy it is to eat and exercise (etc.) healthfully and to increase the holiness with which we treat our bodies, and thereby keep people out of the hospital, nursing homes, and wheelchairs for preventable reasons.
In order to deliver this knowledge and wisdom to the Jewish People, the project consists of the following components:
1. The book – Body & Soul: The Torah Path of Health, Fitness and a Holy Life
2. A youth edition – workbook-style, to be used in the classroom
3. A children’s book
4. Short (3-5-min) how-to videos on nutrition and exercise, to be delivered via various channels, including a website, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.
5. Israeli versions of the above.
Rabbi Alexander Seinfeld PhD, Dan Grove MD