Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a project of SIMHA, the Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness. An article in Psychology Today entitled How to Cultivate Hope (May, 2023) reported that studies show that people high in hope have sustainably better physical and mental wellbeing. They also tend to live longer and happier lives. High hope people see and respond to the world differently, and they use their thoughts to focus on what they can control.
This is nice new term called High Hope people. But how do you get hope? It the Torah it’s called Tikva. There's even a popular song by Benny Friedman called Yesh Tikva/There is hope.
We, in our religion, are great believers in hope. In our amida, word Tikva shows up twice (at least in the Sephardic text):
- When we ask for a good year, we say, VaAseh La Tivka Tova vAchrit Shalom/ let's have good hope and a good ending.
So even if we might not be doing great in business right now, we can hope for a good ending. This is important concept- that we hope for the better future. That is the belief in Mashiach, and a belief a better future. We have hope.
-On the other hand, the second time it says Tikva in the Amida, it refers to the heretics and the slanderers-Laminim V’Namalshinim, Al Tehi Tikva/ to theheretics and slanderers, there should be be no hope.
That means they should just be destroyed without any hope for change. But there's a deeper meaning: people who are heretics don't have hope. Hope is only for people who believe in Hashem. That's why our spirituality is important for our mental health.
A key point in mental health is that even when a situation is dire, there's hope. This ties into the source of these lessons, SIMHA, the Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness. Many people don't know exactly what SIMHA does. We are a white-glove referral service for mental health referrals. After a short phone screening with a mental health professional, a person can come down to our organization, located at on 1019 Avenue P (if they're uncomfortable coming in person, they can make a virtual appointment) to meet a mental health professional. After that assessment and consultation, we pair them up with the right therapist, psychiatrist, psychologist, or whatever is needed. So, if you're not exactly sure what you need, come down. We’ll give you a nice assessment and referral.
Our Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Eli Mandelbaum, a wonderful psychologist, has said many times that, “I'm a salesman and I sell hope. That's what I do as a therapist.” Yes, you're depressed. Yes, you're anxious. Yes, you're dealing with whatever you have, but times will become better. I'm trying to sell hope.
And the more you believe in Hashem, the easier it is to make the sale and buy hope.
As we are in the times of Purim, it’s interesting to note that after Haman was paraded through the streets and his downfall was starting, it says they rushed Haman out of the house. He didn’t even have chance to change after his daughter poured dirty sewage on him (thinking he was Mordechai) as he paraded Mordechai through the streets. When she saw that it was her father, she jumped off roof and committed suicide. When Haman got home from that ordeal, they rushed him out and straight to the party. I once saw an explanation of why they rushed him- because they knew that Haman and Amalek have no hope. Once they start to go down, they commit suicide. There's no hope. They didn't want Haman to commit suicide before he went through the rest of the process (eventually he was hung).
So Haman, Amalek, they have no hope. Hitler committed suicide. They check out. But we Jewish people have hope. That's the key to our survival, in all situations, in all generations, even in concentration camps, there is hope.
We pray that the hostages keep their hope level up as well, because that's the secret to survival- hope. The more that we believe in Hashem taking care of us, the more hope we have. That's part of the cross between our spirituality and our mental health.
And just in case there's someone out there that wants to buy some hope, you can call Simha @ (929) 841-5160 or send an email to office@simhahealth.org. And you can buy some hope for your mental health challenge. Have a wonderful day.