Mysticism in Practice: Integrating Jewish Spirituality and 12-Step Wisdom into Thera peutic Care for Healthcare Professionals

Abstract This paper examines the conceptual bridge between Jewish mystical traditions and the 12-step spiritual framework, exploring how the "Higher Power" concept navigates the epistemology-ontology divide in contemporary religious consciousness. Through comparative analysis of Martin Buber and Gershom Scholem's approaches to divine encounter, alongside Moshe Idel and Harry Wolfson's divergent methodologies, this study positions the 12-step model as a practical embodiment of mystical theology in secular contexts. The analysis demonstrates how the Oxford Group's Protestant evangelical origins paradoxically create convergence points with Jewish mystical practices, particularly in Hasidic traditions of hitbatlut (self-nullification) and the presence of divine sparks in kelipot (husks). By examining the theological implications of divine presence within human powerlessness, this work argues that the 12-step program represents a democratized mysticism that transcends denominational boundaries while maintaining core theological tensions between immanence and transcendence, experience and structure.