How to Never Stress Again Abraham Twerski

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski was the author of a more than 80 books. Courtesy of YouTube Screenshot

The expiry of the Chasidic rabbi and famed psychiatrist, Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski, on Jan. 31 prompted much coverage in the U.South. and State of israel, where he lived in his later years. But the printing missed a major element of his important legacy.

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski was the author of a more than 80 books. Courtesy of YouTube Screenshot

The obituaries covered his religious and universal appeal through the more than than 80 books he wrote, his breakthrough work on drug and booze addiction through the Gateway Rehabilitation Middle he founded in Pittsburgh, and his friendship with "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, whose comic strip the rabbi used every bit a tool with his patients, attributing great psychological insights to Charlie Brownish.

Left unreported, though, was Rabbi Twerski's remarkable success on the Cyberspace, with a serial of 90-second video insights that have generated more than 150 million views online.

How did a soft-spoken, bearded Chasidic rabbi go a viral sensation with his plain-spoken letters on universal themes like beloved, self-confidence, handling stress — and learning a lesson from lobsters?

I had the honor of knowing Rabbi Twerski and producing those videos. As a media executive, having worked at CBS and Play tricks, I tried to create an 'American Idol' search of the top rabbis and best Jewish educators around the world. That quest brought me to Rabbi Twerski, who was a natural in forepart of the camera. He did not need a script and he delivered his messages in one flawless take.

In the video on handling stress (his most popular, with 80 million views), Rabbi Twerski explains that we tin can all learn a life lesson from lobsters.

He said that while waiting in his dentist's part, he read an commodity about the marine crustaceans and learned that they are made of soft tissue while bars within a hard shell. As the lobster grows, it experiences pressure and discomfort, confined past its crush, the rabbi tells us. "And so information technology goes under a rock, casts off its shell, and produces a new i."

"The stimulus for the lobster to be able to grow is to feel uncomfortable," the rabbi points out, calculation that "if lobsters were able to become to a doctor, they would be given a Valium or Percocet and never grow."

After a crush comes the takeaway: "Times of stress are times that are signals for growth, and if we use adversity properly, we tin can grow through adversity." The message is vivid, relevant, memorable.

By example, we come up to understand the key elements of the rabbi'southward success in his videos and in his life. He was an accessible presence with a credible, thoughtful and comforting manner.

His topics were of business to us all in our daily lives, though he approached them with fresh perspectives. He spoke with a quiet dynamism that elicited emotional and personal entreatment.

American-born and educated in public schools and universities, Rabbi Twerski appears to his audience as inviting, but non ordinary; smart, but not bookish; original, only non abstract; almost coincidental, but still meaningful. Above all, equally just plumbing fixtures for the scion of a proud Chasidic dynasty, he was a natural storyteller, continuing a centuries-old tradition of teaching deep wisdom through unproblematic narratives.

A modest man, Rabbi Twerski attributed the success of his videos to mazal — luck. "There is no logic to mazal," he would say with a twinkle in his eye.

But to understand the remarkable ability he had to connect with his audience, go straight to the source, his videos, to run into for yourself how this Chasidic psychiatrist shared these methods for success to life.

dominguezwitchany82.blogspot.com

Source: https://forward.com/scribe/465481/what-the-rabbi-learned-from-the-lobster/

Share this post