| RICHARDSON – Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor's surgery this summer
changed his life, taught him about love and gave him new faith in his
own potential.
The spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Torah in Richardson had
gastric surgery in June when he was carrying about 450 pounds on his
5-foot, 10 ½-inch frame. At his October checkup, Rabbi Leynor weighed
332. And he's still losing.
But for Rabbi Leynor, the true importance of this life-altering
operation is far beyond dropping pounds.
"The scar that runs from under my sternum to my navel is a sign
that this was my chance to re-create myself," he says, "so I
can go on and fulfill my mission and help others to change their
lives."
The operation ushered in a radically different, permanent lifestyle.
And what it's really all about is love.
Weight's always been a problem for Rabbi Leynor. He weighed more than
10 ½ pounds at birth and grew up in a traditional Jewish home in which
"food was comfort," he recalls.
Rabbi Leynor was overweight when he assumed the Beth Torah pulpit in
1989. And he kept gaining.
"Everybody comes to rabbis with problems," he says.
"But rabbis have problems, too. I've seen counselors. I've done
everything there was to do."
The amount of weight that he has gained and lost through the years
was enough, he says, "to create and destroy whole human
beings."
"Eating for me was like smoking, or drinking, or taking drugs:
You don't need these things to survive, but I'd got to a point where I
couldn't fill up the abyss inside me."
Divorced in 1997, Rabbi Leynor was battling the problems of a broken
family along with escalating weight when social worker Karen Clar, a
single mother, joined Beth Torah. The two became acquainted as he
prepared her son Austin, now 16, for his Bar Mitzvah. They married in
2001.
"Karen took care of me when I couldn't do anything for myself
[after the surgery]," he says. "But it's not just that she
helped me then. You must love yourself enough to eat to live, not live
to eat, and she helped me learn to love myself."
In bypass surgery, the stomach is permanently reduced to a pouch that
can hold only about a half cup of food. This is the same surgery that Today
show weatherman Al Roker underwent in March; he has since lost about 100
pounds.
The surgery kept Rabbi Leynor in the hospital for five days.
"I don't have any 'in' with God because I'm a rabbi, and I was a
little afraid," he admits. "As I went to sleep, I said the Sh'ma
[the Jewish affirmation of faith]. But in a day, I was out of bed and
walking."
Rabbi Leynor paid tribute to his wife in a Rosh Hashanah sermon on
love.
"Years ago, I thought 'love' was what my parents felt towards
me. Later, I learned about love of friends, and of the love we discover
when we have our own children. But there is a different love, a deeper
love ... the caring that is shown when we are helpless. Karen was my
nurse, physically and spiritually. When I couldn't do for myself, she
was there. I was inspired and renewed."
Rabbi Leynor believes that all characters in the Hebrew Bible are
flawed, but God sees the potential in each. And now, he believes in his
own potential.
"Not all change has to be this dramatic, but even small changes
now can offer dramatic changes in the future," he says. "And I
can't imagine any paradise better than being in this world with someone
you love who loves you, too."
Harriet P. Gross is a free-lance writer and educator in Dallas.
http://www.dallasnews.com/religion/stories/122003dnrelwhere_leynor.bab38e4d.html |
