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Ilana Halina Oren’s Insanity and Grace is a compelling and mesmerizing memoir that vividly portrays the indomitable human spirit and the mysteries of faith.
Dr. Ilana Halina Oren has had the honor of being a trusted therapist for several patients for more than three decades. Throughout almost a lifetime of talking with people, she has been entrusted with countless secrets and has been a witness to untold revelations and confessions of shame and guilt.
Yet, as a therapist, it has always been that she was the confidant, and there were rather few opportunities for her to confide and express her story to others. Now, in Insanity and Grace, her compelling memoir about the indomitable human spirit and the mysteries of faith, she talks about the events in her life that have shaped her to be who she is now.
Book Feature: Insanity and Grace
In Insanity and Grace, Dr. Oren takes a deep and hard look at the skeletons in her closet–from her experience living as the child of Holocaust survivors–one of the surviving members of the Ashkenazi Jews in Poland–who were part of the first waves of immigration to Israel in 1957 to her grief and heartache during the Six-Day War and the aftermath of losing friends to the conflict and the thrill and excitement and pride serving in the Israeli Defense Force.
Throughout the life of Dr. Oren, her Jewish background always loomed behind her, in particular, the concept of the “chosen people,” the idea that the Hebrew people, the Jews, were the very people that the God Yahweh chose to patronize as is told in the Torah and the Old Testament.
This is not a light burden for anyone, let alone a woman who’s lived a life like Dr. Oren’s. So, all through her travels and her work, she has always been asking the question of “Why?” Why were her people chosen? Why was she here? Why was anyone here?
It was only through asking these hard-hitting questions that she found the will and the faith to put her life into the hands of a higher power, the Lord, God Himself, Emanuel, and be gifted a new lease on life.
A New Lease in Life
Although Dr. Ilana Halina Oren has been through a lot, all those experiences shaped how she looks at the world now. As the child of Holocaust survivors, she knows how society can be upended overnight and how fragile life can be. As part of the Israeli Defense Forces, she knows firsthand the consequences that conflict brings to those she loves and the hard-won importance of peace.
As a Jewish person, her appreciation for her people and culture and the land of Israel is etched deep in her bones. She deeply understands the impact that individual dedication and passion have in making a difference in the world.
For many people, searching for meaning and finding a new lease on life is always going to be a neverending journey. Some may find fulfillment in their careers, relationships, or hobbies, while others may seek more profound answers to life’s big questions. The avenue that has helped Dr. Oren in filling the void is believing in a higher power, namely Emanuel.
Believing in a higher power can provide comfort, guidance, and purpose. It also provides a foundation with which to understand and engage the world and people’s place in it.
After gaining faith in Emanuel, Dr. Oren has found her true place in the world and is now filled with an overwhelming sense of peace and calm, even during times of uncertainty and difficulty.
