[Nefeshnews] Thank You speech of Judi Guedalia on receiving Esther Solomon z"l award at NEFESH XV Conference

[alice tusk]

​

We mourn the loss of Dr. Judi Guedalia as a friend and a colleague

We were enriched by her energy, passion for Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and
her fierce determination to bring healing

Among her multitude of accomplishments, Judi was the Director of the
Neuropsychology Clinic, Chief Psychologist at Shaare Zedek Medical Center

Founder of NEFESH Israel and authoress of…….

For those who never met Judi, please take a moment to read her acceptance
speech as she was awarded the Esther Solomon a’h award in 2011

For those of us who did know her….you will read this with a heart filled
with memories



Sincerely,



The Board of NEFESH International


Dear Nefeshers,
Below is a copy of the Thank You speech I gave and a video that my sister
Aviva Sussman took at the Nefesh XV Conference in Long Island, NY. I am
grateful to Nefeshers and the Esther Solomon zl committee for honoring me
with the award, and especially in awe and grateful to Hashem that allowed
me to 'collect' the award in person.
To see the video scroll down to the black box with the arrow.  It may  not
work each time but try again.
At anyrate here is the speech in print.
All the best,
Judi Guedalia

*Thank you for Esther Solomon Z’L Award*

*Judith Sandra Bendheim Guedalia, PhD.*

 Before I begin I would like to say *SheHechiyanu ve kiimanu VeHigianu Laa
Zman HaZeh. *

 I am truly honored to be a recipient of the Esther Solomon z”l award.

Coming from Israel to the Nefesh Conferences, I always came the night
before to get my ‘land legs’ so to speak.  Frequently that meant helping
out with last minute gluing, stuffing, etc. on the floor with my swimming
Chavruta, Esther Solomon.

The women’s swim was at 7 am and Esther and I would be there with another
few stalwarts.  After doing our laps we would chat, Esther always had great
ideas for *Shiduchim* and made quite a few.  I was less fortunate having
made just one shidduch, but I benefitted from the ones that she made.  Esther
made a SINGLE condition for A Shidduch, a trip to Israel, and we would have
coffee or lunch on my ‘home turf’ celebrating each of her successes.  May
we all be Zocheh to follow in her footsteps and be at Hashem’s service and
be Mezaveg Zevugim, join souls.

I received the call telling me of the award just minutes after another
fateful call, that one informing me that my latest CT had come back with
not such good news, the cancer that was discovered a year ago and excised
AND Chemo-ed, was back full force and had succeeded in making a new tumor.

My first reaction was I don't want to get the award of the best Nebbish
Story of the conference.  I was assured that the committee had me on the
short list for three years already, well before I was ill, and that now I
was the natural shoe- in.

Once hearing that, which happened to be the day after the Nobel Prize was
awarded and retracted because the recipient had croaked three days
previously; I said "No Backsies".

 I was again assured that that would be the case.  Parenthetically, the
Nobel Awards committee *did* reinstate Professor Ralph Steinman z”l’s,
Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.

And now for the difficult part; the previous honorees were, as you all
know, Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski, Rav Dovid Cohen, Rabbi Dr. David Pelcovitz
and Reb Ronnie Greenwald.  I recalled the song from Sesame Street: "One of
these things is not like the others", ME!  If I was to accept the reward I
had a lot of responsibility to future FEMALE recipients.

1-       One, they don't all have to have a Chronic Terminal Illness;

2-       Two they don't *have* to wear Black Suits and white accessories,
and three…

3-       to quote Perry, the Republican hopeful, I forget what Number three
is…

What should I wear, and of similar importance, what would I say?!?  Just
being here today took a tremendous toll, not just on me but also on my
family and my beloved husband, Rabbi Dr. Harris Guedalia.  Hashem aligned
the stars and moons and even as I write this I am not quite sure how and if
my attendance will work out.

This time, I diagnosed the cancer recurrence on Rosh Hashana, and finagled
a CT Scan immediately following the Chag which confirmed a tumor a day
later.  There were many ‘Sefarot’ what would be the best way to treat it.  Most
Docs said Surgery was out of the Question, rather Shrink it with Chemo and
then surgically remove it; or the trickier more risky way, do surgery first
and then do the Chemo to ensure that the little buggers will not return any
time soon.

Most of the doctors in Israel and the States to whom we spoke were not in
favor of doing the surgery first.  But how could *I* let this unwanted
‘guest’ live in Me for months before evicting it???  I wanted it O-U-T, and
OUT as soon as possible, before it could grow a millimeter larger.  The
surgeon who operated on me 15 months before in NY, when the wretched
disease was first identified (by me), said he could do the surgery and felt
that doing it immediately was the way to go.  I had it O-U-T in New York,
the day after Sukkot.  Both times I had no symptoms and my blood tests were
just dandy.  My main ‘complaint’ was stubborn constipation; even as the
bowel system seemed to independently work alright.

Since the surgeries, last year’s and now this one, the Beracha I say with
the most Kavana is ‘Asher Yazar’.  The more I looked into the meaning of
this Beracha, the more I felt that it is an all-encompassing special prayer
that was so much deeper than its mere literal translation, a Beracha with a
message that we, as Torah True Mental Health Professionals, need to
integrate into our personal and professional lives.

When Theodore Reik spoke of the *Listening with the Third Ear*, he described
how psychoanalysts intuitively use their own unconscious minds to detect,
decode and decipher the unconscious wishes and fantasies of their patients.


When talking to my son David about the ‘Gadlous’ of the *Asher Yazar
Beracha* for its psychological insight, I noted that I visualize Hashem
sitting on-high, permitting and allowing our soma and stoma to receive and
express so much more than the peristaltic flotsam of basic day-to-day life.
The sharpened awareness of ‘what’s going on’ is the essence of true
communication with ourselves, with others, and of course with our Creator.  My
son David mentioned that I should look up the Queen of Sheba’s riddles to
King Solomon in Ginzberg’s *Legends of the Jews*.  He was right,

Here is riddle number 7 (pg. 147).

The Queen of Sheba poses this riddle:  “There is an enclosure with ten
doors, when one is open, nine are shut; when nine are open, one is shut.”

King Solomon responded:

“That enclosure is the womb; the ten doors are the ten orifices of man—his
eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, the apertures for the discharge of the excreta
and urine; the navel is open and the other orifices are closed, but when it
issues from the womb,(i.e. the child is born) the navel is closed and the
other ‘doors’ are opened.”

This might be a weird association but I felt it was ‘Right-ON’ the mark as
a segue for my speech this afternoon.  Leah Abramovitz and I attended our
first International Nefesh Conference 13 years ago, we both felt that with
Nefesh International as our mother ship, our placenta as it were,  connecting
and nurturing us, we could attempt birthing Nefesh Israel.  Rabbi Dr.
Mordechai Glick and his wife Nina, the then Presidential pair, and all the
Board members were very positive that our endeavor was possible, and so
began the nascence of Nefesh Israel.   Today the proof of the pudding is in
the eating, with an attendance of around three hundred Torah True Mental
Health Professional a day at our two day conferences, and scores at our
year round lecture series, Nefesh Israel is more than off the ground, its
flying!  This year on FEB 8TH and 9TH 2012 we are having our ‘Bat Mitzvah’
Celebration, our 12th ANNUAL ISRAEL NEFESH CONFERENCE.

Thank you again, awards committee and Nefeshers for bestowing on me the
Esther Solomon z”l award and as such recognizing Nefesh International’s
role in the birthing and nurturing of Nefesh Israel.  The ListServ which
was ‘developed and set afloat’ in Israel under the combined stewardship of
Elana Walhaus and myself and later spun off into two, Nefesh International
ListServ, under Rabbi Dr. Mordechai  Glick’s and now supplemented with Dr.
Abe Worenklein’s able leadership, and the Nefesh Israel ListServ.  Both are
entities which have joined our world of Torah True Mental Health
Professionals intergalactically as we would never have imagined possible.

To Sum up,

Blessed art Thou, Lord our Gd, Ruler of the universe.  In wisdom Thou hast
formed man, creating within him channels innumerable.  In Thy sublimity
Thou knowest that were they rent (torn) or obstructed we could not subsist
even for a short while.  Blessed art Thou, Lord who workest the miracle of
healing for all flesh. (Dr. David de Sola Pool’s translation of Asher
Yatzar)

I will loosely translate it for us today, and the present and future Torah
True Mental Health Professionals:

Blessed is Hashem whose wisdom abounds and created within us many channels
for getting in and releasing ‘stuff’ that we and others, our patients for
example, carry about.    Channels of Spiritual, Secular and Humanistic
communication. Most importantly You have taught us the importance of
releasing and clearing these channels so that we will be available to exist
as healthy individuals *doing* and *working* for ourselves, our families
and Klall Yisrael.

That is my prayer to us all, keep the lines of communication open, learn
from one another, and enjoy *LIFE* and *WORK* in that order.

Thank you.



Judith Guedalia, PhD.
Director, Neuropsychology Unit
Chief Psychologist,
Certified in ADOS Assessment
Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel
Tel: (972) (0) 2 666-6880
Fax:(972) (0) 2 666-6979
guedalia at szmc.org.il

PRIVATE PRACTICE LOCATIONS:
Jerusalem:
Chacham Shalom: Building 3/ 2nd Entrance Grnd Floor
(972) (0) 545-516 254

CSI BEIT SHEMESH (Consultation, Solution-based diagnostics, Intervention)
Machon Kidma, Beit Shemesh
054-5 516213
____________________________
CHECK OUT MY NEW WEBSITE:
www.drjudithguedalia.com Now on Kindle Blog


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