Denial of Ill - health / Tehillim
Someone please tell me why the Rabbis have not issued an eddict that it is innately irrational for family to try to keep secret someone's illness - and then perhaps day/s later glibly ask that Thillim be said?
Why waste those days?
- In the first instance it is perhaps about denial - a derivative of sorrow I guess. One perhaps should not analyze this too much.
- Or about the hope that the person will get better soon - obviating the need for promulgating the 'problem.'
- This rapidly becomes with some people - an effective derivation / inversion of AYIN - HARA ; EVIL EYE.
- Or vicariousness or schadenfreude? This too is complex. Too prolix for simple discussion here.
- The macho / infallability syndrome may also play a part?
It is with heavy heart one makes this call - without wishing to explicate others' potential / incipient / inevitable grief.
My / our multi - level personal grief of years ago and the multi - level tragedies that further arose - do not give me authority to explicate anyone else's reaction at their time of great stress.
However perhaps Rabbis could possibly advise congregants ...whatever they like.
With possibly some consideration to my attempt at being respectfull herein.
Geoff Seidner
East St Kilda
East St Kilda
Schadenfreude German [ˈʃaːdənfrɔydə]
n
delight in another's misfortune
[German: from Schaden harm + Freude joy]
vi·car·i·ous
[vahy-kair-ee-uh s, vi-] Show IPA
adjective
1.
performed, exercised, received, or suffered in place of another: vicarious punishment.
2.
taking the place of another person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute.
3.
felt or enjoyed through imagined participation in the experience of others: a vicarious thrill.
4.
Physiology . noting or pertaining to a situation in which one organ performs part of the functionsnormally performed by another.
