Podcast Episode 4: The Road To Resilience

Dr. Elliott Malamet hosts a conversation about resilience with author Sherri Mandel.  He opens with an interesting juxtaposition. In Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, two tramps stand around at the side of the road and make up games and conversations to pass the time, and although they repeatedly threaten to move on, they never do. In Sherri’s books Blessing of A Broken Heart and The Road to Resilience, the reader learns that even in the throes of grief, when moving on seems impossible, with help, one can.

In this episode we explore healing and grieving traumatic experiences and discuss how Judaism can be helpful to those in grief. We hear about the different ways people reacted to Sherri’s trauma, and we're offered some insight into how to talk to people who have suffered traumatic loss. Additionally, we learn how Sherri and her husband processed the loss of their son Koby to a terrorist attack, together and as a family unit. 

A few excerpts from Sherri's writing:

“The day that we found out my son was murdered… I don’t like to think about that day. But I do know in the afternoon I picked out the beret I would wear to the funeral. I’d been lying in bed crying, I felt paralyzed, and that I wanted to die. I didn’t know how we would live.”

Sherri Mandel

And here is another passage from Blessing about the funeral:    

“The rabbi’s wife takes a knife and slices a rip in my shirt from the collar, rends my husband’s shirt and my children’s as well. I do not faint but my legs don’t want to accept the weight of my body; my body wants to collapse, wants to plunge to the earth, wants to disappear. But I don’t.

Sherri Mandel

In this episode we explore healing and grieving traumatic experiences and we discuss if Judaism is helpful to grieving, and if so how. We hear about different reactions to Sherri's trauma from other people, and how to talk to people who have suffered traumatic loss. Additionally we learn how Sherri and her husband processed the loss of their son Koby to a terrorist attack together as a family, and how to build resilience.