Introduction

By Jen Gubitz

Hello, couch. Hello, kitchen table. Hello, backyard.

I look around my house and I greet these ordinary objects.

We have spent more time together these past months than usual. 

Thank you for being an oasis of comfort and safety.

You have worked so hard to hold me, day in and day out.

How can we allow you and me to rest and restore and return on this most sacred day?

I transform you with my desire for the change I wish to see in myself.

You, dear couch, table, backyard, you are now my sacred space—my mikdash m’at, 

a sanctuary where I will allow myself to become present to my breath,

to turn down the noise of the world

and turn up the volume of my prayers.

Shanah tovah, dear couch, Good Yuntif, dear kitchen table, G’mar Tov, dear backyard!

In this holy space that is my home, I pursue my desire to become whole.

“Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.” — Abraham Joshua Heschel

Healing and recovery are journeys, not fixed destinations or binary modes of being. They are not linear, but neither is Jewish time—just as each year brings a new cycle of seasonality, so does the path of healing and recovery. We may go through times when it feels certain that the sun will never shine again on our bodies and spirits, but sometimes stars still sparkle across the veil of the dark. 

This book is for you, wherever you may be on that journey, so feel free to take what works and leave the rest. May it serve and support you in all the ways you need. 

The Mi Sheberach is a central Jewish prayer traditionally recited in synagogue when the Torah is read. The prayer, which is said by or on behalf of those who are ill or recovering from illness or injury, is holistic and asks for a complete healing of body, mind, and spirit. Named for the first two words of the prayer itself, meaning “May the One who blessed,” the Mi Sheberach situates the person asking for healing within a long lineage of Biblical ancestors and Jewish community. 

Like other healing journeys, recovery from addiction is a process, not a straight line. The following prayers for folks in recovery are designed to give you some comfort and company on that journey out of mitzrayim, the narrow place akin to Egypt in which you might find yourself at present.