As rabbis, we routinely make pastoral calls to check on congregants after a surgery, illness or as they grieve the loss of a loved one. There are calls we make, however, that cause us to hold our breaths. We shudder to ask, “How is your daughter doing with treatment,” “Is your son out of prison yet,” or “Is your husband still using?” As faith leaders in our communities, we know the opioid epidemic is wreaking havoc across our state as young people, mothers, fathers and even grandparents face addiction to heroin and other opioids.
Opioids are found in our cities, our suburbs and rural areas. For too many individuals, heroin and drug possession leads to prison sentences, where they rarely find access to recovery or rehabilitation programs.
It is time to start thinking outside the prison bars. It is time for us to stop looking at addiction as a moral failure and start looking at it as an illness that we treat with programs that promote healing.
Addiction is as old as the Bible. Jewish tradition informs us about the yetzer hara, the impulses that, if go unchecked, lead to dangerous behaviors. We are taught that the yetzer hara renews itself every day, just as addicts struggle to conquer their temptations on a daily basis. These very human impulses are treatable, but only if we choose to decriminalize people who are overtaken by them.
As voters in Ohio, we have the unique opportunity to change the way our society responds to addiction. Voting yes on Issue 1 will bring more drug treatment into Ohio communities, and less mistreatment inside our state’s prisons.
As Jews, we believe that to save one life is to save the whole universe. Last year, 13 Ohioans died of overdoses every day, yet half of our counties have no inpatient drug treatment facility. Issue 1 will reduce incarceration by reclassifying low level drug possession felonies as misdemeanors, increasing the opportunity to earn time off for incarcerated individuals who participate in rehabilitative programming and providing gradual sanctions for technical probation violations instead of an immediate prison sentence. The money saved by this reduction in incarceration will be funneled into community trauma services and drug treatment.
Rabbi Abraham Twerski, the great clinician and rabbi, compares recovering addicts to diamonds. He wrote, “Do you know what a diamond looks like when it comes out of a mine? Like a worthless, dirty piece of glass. It is sent to the processing plant and emerges as a beautiful diamond. You cannot put beauty into a piece of glass.” In counseling a patient, he said, “I don’t know much about diamonds, but I know something about people. You have a beautiful diamond within you, it is in your soul and implanted within you by God. It has been covered with grime, but we can polish it and uncover the diamond within you.”
On Nov. 6, when we cast our votes, may we think about all of the diamonds in our community who are in need of redemption. Casting a yes vote on Issue 1 begins the process of uncovering and supporting the gems living in the shadows among us.
Rabbi Josh Caruso is rabbi at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, Ohio.
Rabbi Rick Kellner is rabbi at Congregation Beth Tikvah in Worthington.
