YESOD

"R. Hiyya b. Abba fell ill and R. Johanan went in to visit him. He said to him: Are your sufferings welcome to you? He replied: Neither they nor their reward. He said to him: Give me your hand. He gave him his hand and he raised him. R. Johanan once fell ill and R. Hanina went in to visit him. He said to him: Are your sufferings welcome to you? He replied: Neither they nor their reward. He said to him: Give me your hand. He gave him his hand and he raised him. Why could not R. Johanan raise himself? - They replied: The prisoner cannot free himself from jail."
- Berachot 5b

Yesod is the Foundation, and in the Talmud it is stated that "the righteous are the foundation of the world." By following the path of Torah, we create a righteous foundation for the rest of our life. We become an ish tzaddik, a righteous person. In all things, if the foundation is good, then the rest of the task is all the easier. Establishing a good foundation is one of the most important things that we can do for ourselves.

Yesod is also connected with our base energy and our generative lifeforce, and it corresponds to the Nephesh level of the soul. By establishing proper habits, the lifeforce is enhanced. If one does not have good habits, then they can be gradually acquired through simple behavior modification. Rabbi Nachman's story of the Turkey Prince illustrates how behaviors which must first be deliberately performed will eventually become ingrained as habits deep within.

Once there was a Prince who thought he was a Turkey. He wouldn't wear clothes, and he would just sit naked under the dinner table pecking at bones and pieces of bread. None of the doctors could heal him, so the King finally consulted a rabbi who was known for his wisdom. The rabbi came to the castle and immediately took off his clothes and sat under the table next to the Prince. "Hello," said the rabbi, "Who are you?" "I'm a turkey," said the Prince. "Well, I'm a turkey, too," said the rabbi, and thus, the two of them began to talk. After a while, the rabbi pointed out that they could both put on shirts, and then they would just be turkeys wearing shirts. The Prince agreed, and so they put on shirts. A little while later, the rabbi pointed out that they could also put on pants without ceasing to be turkeys, and so they both put on pants. Finally, the rabbi pointed out that they could both sit in chairs to eat, and that doing so would not cause them to cease being turkeys. Again the Prince agreed, and so they both sat in chairs. And in this manner, the rabbi gradually got the Prince to change his behavior, and eventually, the Prince became so used to his new habits that he completely forgot that he was a turkey.

By properly following the path of Torah, life generating habits can become an integral part of our being.

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life."
Deuteronomy 30:19

Choosing life should be an automatic habit. Since I am in my mid-forties, I've reached that point in life where one has to pay more attention to those things that are good for one's health. Hence, below is my own personal list of some of the things I've learned to do to create a healthy foundation.

1. Do aerobic exercise at least three times a week. After all, "the life is in the blood" and at my age, you have no idea how good oxygen to the brain feels! Because of back problems, I have to be selective in my exercises. Nevertheless, some of my favorites are:
   • Long Walks. The body is designed for walking, and it is a low impact, circulation enhancing exercise that can be safely done by almost anyone. It's the simplest way to get quality exercise no matter where we are.
   • Exercycle, Stair Stepper, and Manual Treadmill. I like to spend about three minutes on each machine in my home and then go to another. After about eighteen minutes, all the cells of my body are just lovin' that fresh blood!
   • Low impact, aerobic dance, video tapes. What can I say? Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons, you've saved my life!
2. Take a daily dose of aspirin. In recent years, much evidence has accrued regarding the many health benefits of aspirin. It not only relieves pain, but is also antiinflammatory and helps prevent strokes.. Low dosages designed for daily consumption are now available in many stores.
   
3. Get the fat out! Nonfat cheese used to taste like a really bad piece of cardboard. However, food scientists have now turned a lot of these flavorless dishes into scrumptious delights. At many stores now you can find tasty nonfat cheeses, nonfat cookies, nonfat ice cream, nonfat butter substitutes, lowfat baked potato chips, and lowfat meats. If you need some motivation to reduce the fat in your diet, just go hang around the heart bypass clinic for awhile. Remember, even the Torah tells us to get the fat out ("It shall be an everlasting statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood." Leviticus 3:17)!
   
4. Do eat fatty fish. The one kind of fat which seems to be beneficial and which dramatically reduces the chances of heart problems is the omega-3 fatty acid found in fatty fish such as salmon and tuna. Make it a habit to eat these fish at least twice a week.
   
5. Drink a small glass of red wine in the evening. I'm one of those people who rarely drinks. After all, the brain is one of my favorite organs, and I just don't like it to be foggy. However, more and more research has shown us the benefits of drinking just a single glass of red wine every day. It boosts heart-protecting HDL cholesterol, wards of heart disease and strokes, kills bacteria, and inhibits viruses. I drink perhaps a third of a cup before going to bed in the evening. Excessive drinking, of course, is very harmful to the brain, the liver, the family, and the community. However, wine is a traditional symbol for our joy, and when ingested in very modest amounts, it seems to also act as an antidepressant. Hence, there may be something behind this tradition of associating wine with joy.
   
6. Eat vegetables every day. The more you eat the right stuff, the less likely you will be to get all kinds of cancer. I like to go to the store and get one of those frozen packs of vegetables that comes ready with a sauce to mix with chicken for an easy to make dinner. The whole thing usually lasts me for about three days.
   
7. Eat some nonfat yogurt. Studies of yogurt with active cultures show that it boosts immune functioning by stimulating production of gamma interferon, and it promotes the presence of healthy bacteria in the colon.
   
8. Eat some nonfat, vegetarian beans. What can I say? Fiber is a wonderful thing.
   
9. Eat fresh garlic. Chopped and minced, it can be a nice addition to that plate of spaghetti. While eating garlic may not win you any friends, it is a powerful broad-spectrum antibiotic that combats bacteria, intestinal parasites, and viruses. It also lowers blood pressure, stimulates the immune system, and helps protect against cancer. A can of lowfat chili and beans with some fresh garlic added t'aint bad!
   
10. Eat onions. They thin the blood, protect the heart, and do a lot of the same stuff that garlic does for you.
    
11. Eat fruit every day. I like to buy some fresh or frozen fruit and have a nice dessert at the end of the day of fruit and nonfat frozen yogurt. It helps protect against cancer and it gives you a lot of fiber. My favorites are strawberries and blue berries.
    
12. Eat less. I'm still working on this one. Nevertheless, research has shown that the easiest way to increase life expectancy is to simply reduce your total caloric intake.
    
13. Do some stretching. We tend to lose flexibility as we get older. A little conscientious stretching can help reverse this process.
    
14. Take some vitamin C. I take a few grams each day. I particularly like taking powdered, buffered vitamin C in gelatin capsules.
    
15. Take Grape Seed Extract. This little antioxidant is about 20 times stronger than vitamin C and 50 times more powerful than vitamin E.
    
16. Take Glucosamine Sulfate for cartilage replacement. As we age, we tend to experience pain in our joints as the cartilage in the joints deteriorates. Glucosamine Sulfate helps regenerate this lost cartilage.
    
17. Drink ginger and ginseng tea. There are several brands of each tea that may be found at health food stores. Find a brand that tastes good to you and which gives you a sense of well being. Both ginger and ginseng are restorative tonics with long histories of testimonials and scientific research to back their claims. Ginger is antiinflammatory, reduces nausea, and promotes circulation. It can help ameliorate the effects of arthritis, and it helps warm and get blood to every single part of the body. Ginseng has an equally well-known reputation as a body tonic and blood pressure normalizer, and it also helps stimulate the generative systems within the body. I love to toss a bag of ginger and ginseng tea together in a thermal mug, and drink this wonderful tonic tea throughout the morning.
    
18. Drink some green tea. The catechins in green tea act as an anticoagulant, artery protector, antibiotic, anti-ulcer agent, cavity-fighter, antiviral agent, and help protect against some cancers. As a pick me up for the afternoon, I often drink some green tea around lunch time. However, it does have caffeine in it, so don't over do it.
    
19. Take Bilberry extract for eye circulation. Works for me! Billberry has been shown to improve capillary circulation in the eyes and other body parts. Some herbs, such as Bilberrry and Ginseng, I prefer to take as extracts in order to insure potency.
    
20. Take Ginkgo Biloba to get oxygen to the brain. Hey! This stuff really works. Between Ginkgo Biloba and aerobic exercise, at least one of my organs feels twenty years younger!
    
21. Take a St. John's Wort herbal pill for mild depression. It's a good herb with proven antidepressant properties.
    
22. Go swim in the ocean. A weekly dip in a natural body of water will relax major muscles, reduce stress, improve circulation, lower stress related blood pressure, and just make you feel reallly good!
    
23. Take a shvitz! For those who don't know, a shvitz is a sauna. In the winter when it is too cold to go swimming, I like to take a thirty minute sauna once a week to improve circulation, relax the muscles, and help eliminate toxins from my system.

In addition to trying to establish a healthy physical foundation, there are also some things I work on to establish a healthy ethical and spiritual foundation.

1. Great people with a smile.
   RECEIVE ALL MEN WITH A PLEASANT COUNTENANCE.54
   -Pirkei Avot 1:15
2. Respect your elders.
   'Issi b. Judah said: "Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head" implies even any hoary head.' Rabbi Johanan said: The law is as stated by Issi b. Judah. Rabbi Johanan used to rise before the heathen aged, saying: 'How many troubles have passed over these!'
   -Kiddushin 33a
3. Treat others the way you would like to be treated.
   'What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbour: that is the whole of the Torah, the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it.' (Hillel)
   -Shabbath 31a
4. Be charitable.
   Charity is equivalent to all the other religious precepts combined.
   -Baba Bartha 9a
   
5. Do an act of kindness for someone every day.
   Gemiluth Hasadim (loving kindness) is greater than charity, for it is said, Sow to yourselves according to your charity, but reap according to your hesed (love, kindness).
   -Sukkah 49b
   
6. Be a peace maker.
   Whilst they were thus conversing two men passed by and Elijah remarked, These two have a share in the world to come. R. Beroka then approached and asked them, What is your occupation? They replied, We are jesters, when we see men depressed we cheer them up; furthermore when we see two people quarrelling we strive hard to make peace between them.
   -Ta'anith 22a
   Hillel used to say: Be thou as the disciples of Aharon, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving humankind and bringing them near to the torah.
   -Pirkei Avot 1:12
   
7. Do not judge others unfairly.
   Do not judge your fellow until you have been in that person's position.
   -Pirkei Avot 2:5
   
8. Enjoy the fruits of your good actions.
   R. Hezekiah R. Kohen said in the name of Rav: A person is destined to give an accounting before the Heavenly Tribunal for everything he saw but did not enjoy, ignoring G-d's world which He meant for man's enjoyment.
   -Yerushalmi, Tractate Shabbat
   
9. Give thanks for those things you enjoy.
   R. Hanina b. Papa said: To enjoy this world without a benediction is like robbing the Holy One.
   -Berachoth 35b
   
10. Don't embarass people.
    He who publicly shames his neighbour is as though he shed blood.
    -Baba Metzia 58b
11. Don't gossip about people.
    The talk about third [persons] kills three persons: him who tells [the slander], him who accepts it, and him about whom it is told.
    -Arachin 15b
    
12. Increase your knowledge.
    Whenever there is in a man knowledge, it is as if the Sanctuary had been built in his days.
    -Berachoth 33a
13. Have a little quiet time each day.
    Simeon, the son of Gamliel, used to say: All my days I grew up among the sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence.
    -Pirkei Avot 1:17
    
14. Shmooze with friends a little each day!
    Hillel said: Do not separate yourself from the community.
    -Pirkei Avot 2:5
    
15. Learn from the natural world.
    The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
    -Psalm 19:2
    R. Johanan observed: If the Torah had not been given we could have learnt modesty from the cat, honesty from the ant, chastity from the dove, and good manners from the rooster who first coaxes and then mates.
    -Eiruvin 100b
    
16. Do the right actions!
    R. Eliezer B. Jacob said: He who performs one precept acquires for himself one advocate, and he who commits one transgression acquires for himself one accuser. Repentance and good deeds are as a shield against calamity.
    -Pirkei Avot 4:13
    
17. Have the right intentions!
    The Holy One, blessed be He, requires the heart, as it is written, But the Lord looketh on the heart.
    -Sanhedrin 106b
    
18. Respect the right of other people to make choices different from yours.
    Do not say "Accept my view," for it is their choice, not yours.
    -Pirkei Avot 4:10
19. Be open to other points of view.
    Every single word that went forth from the Omnipotent was split up into seventy languages. The School of R. Ishmael taught: And like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces., just as a hammer is divided into many sparks, so every single word that went forth from the Holy One, blessed be He, split up into seventy languages.
    -Shabbat 88b
20. Know that your life has a purpose.
    Rab Judah said in Rab's name: Of all that the Holy One, blessed be He, created in His world, He did not create a single thing without purpose. Thus, He created the snail as a remedy for a scab; the fly as an antidote to the hornet's sting; the mosquito crushed for a serpent's bite; a serpent as a remedy for an eruption. and a crushed spider as a remedy for a scorpion's bite. 'A serpent as a remedy for an eruption':what is the treatment? One black and one white serpent are brought, boiled to a pulp and rubbed in.
    -Shabbath 77b
21. Know that we are all related.
    Adam was created alone for the sake of peace among men, that one might not say to his fellow, 'my father was greater than thine'.
    -Sanhedrin 37a
22. Study Torah.
    Resh Lakish says: To him who is engaged in the study of the Torah by night, the Holy One extends a thread of grace by day, as it is said, By day the Lord will command his lovingkindness, and in the night his song shall be with me.
    -Avodah Zarah 3b
23. Learn through continual contemplation.
    Ben Bag Bag said: Turn it over again and again, for everything is in it.
    -Pirkei Avot 5:26
24. Respect the honor of others.
    Let the honor of thy friend by as dear to thee as thine own.
    -Pirkei Avot 2:10
25. Respect the property of others.
    Let the property of they fellow be as precious unto thee as thine own.
    -Pirkei Avot 2:12
26. Live a life of mercy, justice, and humility.
    Micah came and reduced them to three principles, as it is written, It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord doth require of thee: [i] only to do justly, and [ii] to love mercy and [iii] to walk humbly before thy God.
    -Makkoth 24a

Well, this completes my short list of things to do. Much of the health information above is covered in more depth in FOOD YOUR MIRACLE MEDICINE and other books by Jean Carper, and on the internet at Andrew Weil's Doc Talk.