Shabbat Sermon: Real Body Positivity with Rav Hazzan Aliza Berger

From the Bimah: Jewish Lessons for Life

Dronme Davis tells a powerful story. She was nine. At the time, she had developed the habit of biting her nails until they were raw and sometimes even bleeding. A teacher told her, in all seriousness, “if you keep biting your nails, one day you’re doing to meet a boy and you’re going to want him to date you and he’s going to be holding your hand and will look down and see how disgusting your hands are and he’s not going to want to date you.” Even as a nine-year-old, Dronme knew that there was something very wrong with this picture. How could it be that her teacher didn’t see the pain that she was holding, the pain that was pushing her to self-harm in this way? How could it be that at nine, she is getting the message that her relationship to her body should be predicated on the perception of a potential partner? That her body exists to make someone else happy?