Mark Kushner, wearing the sacred Jewish tefillin, with Rabbi Uri Feldman
Spiritual care takes many forms. Recently, Rabbi Uri Feldman, director of Jewish Care on Call for the Chabad of Philadelphia and a volunteer chaplain at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, checked in on 69-year-old Mark Kushner, whose 38-year-old son, Justin, had been hospitalized for many days with a number of medical issues.
The rabbi had been to see the elder Kushner at least once before. While the men looked nothing alike, were decades apart in age, and came from different backgrounds, “we sat and kibitzed,” Kushner said, using the Yiddish term for chatting and making jokes, and Kushner opened up about the challenges of caring for his son. Kushner, a retired restaurant owner and hospitality professor, considers himself a secular Jew, but grew up steeped in New York’s Jewish and Yiddish culture. Since the 1990s, he has observed Shabbat every Friday night, even in the hospital.
When Feldman came to see Kushner on this particular occasion, the rabbi asked if he would like to put on tefillin — a sacred set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah. Many Jews have been wearing tefillin for thousands of years to connect their hearts and minds to God as they pray.
“When someone puts it on, it’s a connection to God that nothing can take away,” Feldman said.
Mark Kushner and his son, Justin, celebrated Shabbat every Friday night that Justin was in the hospital.
Jewish boys traditionally first wear tefillin on the occasion of their bar mitzvah ceremony, a rite of passage in which children are considered adults and mature members of their religious community. Kushner shared with Feldman that he had never worn tefillin, as he had never completed his childhood bar mitzvah training.
The rabbi wrapped the straps around Kushner’s arm and on his head. Together, they said some prayers, and then said a blessing for Justin. Then Feldman told Kushner it was official: Despite the absence of a photographer, caterer, or dance floor, he was a bar mitzvah boy. He had met the requirements under Jewish law. Kushner became emotional and hugged the rabbi.
“My other children had had bar and bat mitzvahs, and I had a plan to have one with Justin, but we got busy,” Kushner said. “I felt I had completed a rite of passage. The rabbi came at a good time in my life.”
Kushner’s bar mitzvah is emblematic of the uniqueness of each visit between a hospital chaplain and a patient or family member, said Caterina Mako, BCC, DMin, HUP’s director of Spiritual Care, Chaplain Services, formerly known as Pastoral Care. “It’s a beautiful example of the broad spectrum of care that chaplains provide when encountering patients and their loved ones.”
What’s in a Name?
HUP Pastoral Care is now Spiritual Care, Chaplain Services. Originally focused on religious care, the profession of hospital chaplain has shifted to providing care for the general spiritual well-being for all patients and family members, said Director Caterina Mako, BCC, DMin. “The chaplains at HUP embrace these societal developments and are always looking for ways to better serve the spiritual needs of everyone who enters our hospitals.”