Mary, Aramaic, Hebrew: Maryām, Miriam; Arabic Maryam, was known as a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee. Israel’s Tourism Ministry has launched tours for Christian pilgrims who would like to know more about the life of Mary, mother of Jesus.

Tour operators are able to plan special pilgrimages for tourists who wish to trace Mary’s footsteps in the Holy Land, visiting the spots where she is supposed to have lived and traveled.

Inside view of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and Altar

The itinerary includes Mary’s birthplace near Nazareth, located in northern Israel, her Tomb near Jerusalem, Mary’s Spring, and more. In addition, the Israeli government has coordinated its efforts with the Palestinian Authority so as to facilitate trips to Bethlehem and other Christian holy sites in Judea and Samaria.

For Christians, “the Holy Land is the physical connection with the life of Jesus,” Friar Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Roman Catholic Church custodian of the Holy Land explained that one could not talk about the life of Jesus without also talking about his mother, however.

A full-color booklet outlining the new itinerary in English will also be translated into Spanish, French, Italian, Polish and Portuguese. The English name “Mary” comes from the Greek Μαρία, which is a shortened form of Μαριάμ. The New Testament name was based on her original Hebrew name Miryam.

Early writings name her parents as Joachim and Anne. However, in the canonical New Testament the gospel of Luke suggests that Mary’s father to be Heli the son of Matthat. According to the apocryphal Gospel of James Mary was the daughter of Joachim and Anne. She resided at Nazareth in Galilee, presumably with her parents and during her betrothal–the first stage of a Jewish marriage.

Mary is involved in the only event in Jesus’ adolescent life that is recorded in the New Testament. At the age of twelve Jesus, having become separated from his parents on their return journey from the Passover celebration in Jerusalem, was found among the teachers in the temple.

After Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist and his temptations by the devil in the desert, Mary was present when, at her intercession, Jesus worked his first public miracle during the marriage in Cana by turning water into wine. Subsequently there are events when Mary is present along with James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, called Jesus’ brothers, and unnamed “sisters”.

Outside view of the Tomb of the Virgin Mary

There is also an incident in which Jesus is sometimes interpreted as rejecting his family. “And his mother and his brothers arrived, and standing outside, they sent in a message asking for him. And looking at those who sat in a circle around him, Jesus said, ‘These are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.’”

According to some traditions, Mary died surrounded by the apostles (in either Jerusalem or Ephesus) between three days and 24 years after Jesus death. The House of Mary near Ephesus in Turkey is traditionally considered the place where Mary lived until her assumption. The Gospel of John states that Mary went to live with the Disciple whom Jesus loved, identified as John the Evangelist. Irenaeus and Eusebius of Caesarea wrote in their histories that John later went to Ephesus, which may provide the basis for the early belief that Mary also lived in Ephesus with John.

Christian devotion to Mary goes back to the 2nd century and predates the emergence of a specific Marian liturgical system in the 5th century, following the First Council of Ephesus in 431. The Council itself was held at a church in Ephesus which had been dedicated to Mary about a hundred years before. In Egypt the veneration of Mary had started in the 3rd century and the term Theotokos was used by Origen, the Alexandrian Father of the Church.

Christian Marian perspectves include a great deal of diversity. While some Christians such as Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have well established Marian traditions, Protestants at large pay scant attention to Mariological themes. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutherans venerate Mary. This veneration especially takes the form of prayer for intercession with her son, Jesus.

The apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, which is not part of new testament scripture, has been the source of many Orthodox beliefs on Mary. The account of Mary’s life presented includes her consecration as a virgin at the temple at age three. The High Priest Zachariah blessed Mary and informed her that God had magnified her name among many generations.

Zachariah placed Mary on the third step of the altar, whereby God gave her grace. While in the temple, Mary was miraculously fed by an angel, until she was twelve years old. At that point an angel told Zachariah to betroth Mary to a widower in Israel, who would be indicated. This story provides the theme of many hymns for the Feast of Presentation of Mary, and icons of the feast depict the story.

The Orthodox believe that Mary was instrumental in the growth of Christianity during the life of Jesus, and after his Crucifixion, and Orthodox Theologian Sergei Bulgakov wrote: “The Virgin Mary is the center, invisible, but real, of the Apostolic Church”

Theologians from the Orthodox tradition have made prominent contributions to the development of Marian thought and devotion. John Damascene (c 650─c 750) was one of the greatest Orthodox theologians. Among other Marian writings, he proclaimed the essential nature of Mary’s heavenly Assumption or Dormition and her mediative role.

Protestants typically hold that Mary was the mother of Jesus, but was an ordinary woman devoted to God. Therefore, there is virtually no Marian veneration, Marian feasts, Marian pilgrimages, Marian art, Marian music or Marian spirituality in today’s Protestant communities.

Islamic views on Mary: Islam regards Mary as the virgin mother of Jesus who they believe was one of the prophets. In the Qur’an, Mary has one of the biggest chapters. She is treated in the Sura Maryam and Al-i imran. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is mentioned as Maryam, more in the Qur’an than in the entire New Testament. She enjoys a singularly distinguished and honored position among women in the Qur’an.

A chapter in the Qur’an is titled “Maryam” (Mary), which is the only chapter in the Qur’an named after a woman, in which the story of Mary (Maryam) and Jesus(Isa) is recounted according to the Islamic view of Jesus. She is mentioned in the Qur’an with the honorific title of “our lady” (syyidatuna) as the daughter of Imran and Hannah.

She is the only woman directly named in the Qur’an; declared (uniquely along with Jesus) to be a Sign of God to mankind Qur’an 23:50, as one who “guarded her chastity” Qur’an 66:12, an obedient one Qur’an 66:12; chosen of her mother and dedicated to God whilst still in the womb Qur’an 3:36; uniquely (amongst women) Accepted into service by God Qur’an 3:37; cared for by (one of the prophets as per Islam) Zakariya (Zacharias) Qur’an 3:37; that in her childhood she resided in the great Hebrew Temple in Jerusalem and uniquely had access to Al-Mihrab (understood to be the Holy of Holies), and was provided with heavenly ‘provisions’ by God Qur’an 3:37.

Mary is also called a Chosen One Qur’an 3:42; a Purified One Qua’an 3:42; a Truthful one Qur’an 5:75; her child conceived through “a Word from God” Qur’an 3:45; and “exalted above all women of The Worlds/Universes (the material and heavenly worlds)” Qur’an 3:42.

The Qur’an relates detailed narrative accounts of Maryam (Mary) in two places Sura 3 Qur’an 3:35 and Sura 19 Qur’an 19:16. These state beliefs in both the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Virgin birth of Jesus. The account given in Sura 19 Qur’an 19:1 of the Qur’an is nearly identical with that in the Gospel according to Luke, and both of these (Luke, Sura 19) begin with an account of the visitation of an angel upon Zakariya (Zecharias) and Good News of the birth of Yahya (John), followed by the account of the annunciation. It mentions how Mary was informed by an angel that she would become the mother of Jesus through the actions of God alone.

In the Islamic tradition, Mary and Jesus were the only children who could not be touched by Satan at the moment of their birth, for God imposed a veil between them and Satan. According to author Shabbir Akhtar, the Islamic perspective on Mary’s Immaculate Conception is compatible with the Catholic doctrine of the same topic. The Qur’an says that Jesus was the result of a virgin birth. The most detailed account of the annunciation and birth of Jesus is provided in Sura 3 and 19 of The Qur’an wherein it is written that God sent an angel to announce that she could shortly expect to bear a son, despite being a virgin.

Other views; To date, scholars continue to debate the accounts of the birth of Jesus from several perspectives, including textual analysis, historical records and post-apostolic witnesses.

The Virgin Mary was worshipped as a Mother goddess in the heretical Christian sect Collyridianism, which was found throughout Arabia sometime during the 300s AD. Collyrdianism was made up mostly of women and even had women priests. They were known to make bread offerings to the Virgin Mary, along with other practices. The group was condemned as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church and was preached against by Epiphanius of Salamis, who wrote about the group in his writings titled Panarion.

From the early stages of Christianity, belief in the virginity of Mary and the virgin conception of Jesus, as stated in the gospels, holy and supernatural, was used by detractors, both political and religious, as a topic for discussions, debates and writings, specifically aimed to challenge the divinity of Jesus and thus Christians and Christianity alike. In the 2nd century, as part of the earliest anti-Christian polemics, Celsus suggested that Jesus was the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier named Panthera. The views of Celsus drew responses from Origen, the Church Father in Alexandria, Egypt.

In December 2010, Catherine Lawless of the University of Limerick stated that by analyzing 15th-century Florentine manuscripts, she had concluded that Ismeria was the maternal grandmother of Mary.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev writes (Likutei Moharan I:173) that the soul and emuna are one aspect. Consequently, one’s emotional health is directly related to the level of one’s emuna. We therefore conclude that emotional disturbances result from a breakdown of emuna.

Emotional confusion results from confused emuna. Emotional weakness is the outcome of weak emuna. This is a rule of thumb for all mental illness.

Allow me to clarify: I’m not referring to such mental handicaps from birth such as autism and Down’s syndrome. These are the result of Divine considerations and soul reincarnations, neither of which we are capable of understanding.

Yet, when we see that a person is born healthy, but at a later age succumbs to fear, anxiety, depression, and even schizophrenia, or any other mental or emotional difficulties, the root of the problem is a blemished emuna. But here’s the good news: if an emotionally-disturbed individual learns all about emuna and prays for emuna, he or she will recover from the ailment. The more a person corrects and strengthens emuna, the more he or she will enjoy mental and emotional health.

Every person – even the so-called “normal” person – suffers from emotional problems to a certain degree. In addition to fear, anxiety, and depression, people are plagued with boredom, lack of satisfaction, anger, worries, nervousness, and extreme mood fluctuations, just to name a few. Emuna cures all these ills.

What are you afraid of?

People are frozen with fear. They fear other people, their bosses, the IRS, terrorists, other motorists – the list is long. Any time they get a muscle spasm, they envision some imminent crippling or terminal disease. All these fears are expressions of a lack of emuna, particularly the lack of emuna that everything Hashem does is for our very best.

A person with emuna doesn’t fear anything, for he knows that he’s in Hashem’s care and that everything Hashem does is for the very best. This saves tons of emotional wear and tear; since Hashem does everything for the best, then there’s nothing to worry about.

A person than devotes an hour a day to self-evaluation, teshuva, and personal prayer especially has nothing to worry about. If a person is making his best effort at self-improvement, then why should Hashem punish him? Such a person doesn’t need wake-up calls, because he’s daily arousing himself to teshuva and to self-improvement. The result of an hour a day in personal prayer is increased happiness and decreased stress and worry.

Be happy!

Stringencies in religious observance are madness; therefore, no one should be too exacting with himself. Don’t worry about whether your performance of a mitzvah is perfect or not, just do what you can with innocence and with simplicity of thought and intent. Remember that the Torah wasn’t given to angels, but to human beings with human limitations.

Those who demand angelic deportment from themselves are therefore candidates for frustration, gloom, and disappointment that results from the arrogant feeling that they should be doing everything perfectly. A person connected to the truth is happy serving Hashem the best way he or she can, without going into hair-splitting stringencies.

Belief in our wise men

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev teaches (See Rebbe Nachman’s Discourses, 67) that, “Ignoring the wise can cause insanity. A person acts insane only because he ignores the advice of others. If he would take rational advice, he could act normal. His mental state might rationalize his need to do such things as tearing his clothing and rolling in the garbage. But a wiser man than he tells him not to do these things. If he would only subjugate his will to the wise, his actions would become completely rational. Insane behavior therefore results only from ignoring the wise. Understand this well.”

The above teaching obligates any rational personal to heed the words of the wise, especially of our renowned spiritual leaders. Belief in their words together with emuna in Hashem is the key to mental health. The Torah praises the children of Israel during their flight from bondage in Egypt when it says (Exodus 14:31), “And they believed in Hashem and in His servant Moses.”

Torah study

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev, probably the greatest doctor of the soul that ever lived, also teaches (see Abridged Likutei Moharan, I:1) that “by learning Torah, one is saved from madness.”

The Yetzer Hara, the evil inclination, wants to drive a person crazy. Our sages teach us that a person doesn’t sin unless the spirit of insanity enters his brain. As the evil inclination (EI) wants a person to sin, he injects that person with a dose of insanity. The EI has all kinds of ploys to trap a person, and uses a number of different temptations and confusions to twist one’s better judgment. The only way to guard against these pitfalls is by strengthening Torah learning and strengthening emuna.

Thoughts

“Evil thoughts and contemplations of lust make people crazy” (Likutei Moharan I:60). There is a very strong correlation between personal holiness and mental health. The opposite is also sad and true, that the more a person succumbs to lust and lewd thoughts, the less sane he becomes. People notoriously do insane things to fulfill their lusts, whether it be squandering hard-earned money, risking the wrath of the irate husband of the woman they covet, or breaking up their own home and ruining their own lives as well as the lives of their wife and children. Pornography adds to this insanity.

Therefore, guarding one’s eyes and mind from lewd and forbidden input is just as important as guarding one’s mouth from swallowing poison. In fact, it’s easier to poison the mind that it is to poison the body.

Torah learning, learning about emuna, sincere teshuva in the area of personal holiness, extensive personal prayer, and guarding one’s eyes especially from impure books, movies, magazines, and websites are conducive to escaping the pitfalls of the type of evil thoughts and contemplations of last that make a normal person insane.

A person should pray for happiness. Happiness and good mental health go hand in hand. True happiness comes from enhanced emuna.

A patient shouldn’t be afraid of doctors or their forecasts, because everything depends on Hashem anyway.

A blind trust in doctors and medicine is itself a form of idolatry. Many people are afraid to sever their dependence on doctors and medicines, as if their lives were dependant on the man with the stethoscope around his neck. Therefore, one should fear Hashem only and not the doctors or their admonitions.

Psalms

Psalms have enormous power, tantamount to an intravenous infusion of trust in Hashem. Trust in Hashem is very conducive to a person’s full and speedy recovery. There are dozens of stories about people who merited miraculous recoveries from reciting Psalms.A little boy’s best friend become very ill and the doctors appeared to have given up hope.

He picked up his book of Psalms, and with poignant innocence said Psalms for an entire hour in his friend’s behalf. He closed the book, ran to his friend’s house, and asked if there was any improvement. His friend’s mother tearfully shook her head in the negative. The little boy ran home and said Psalms for another hour. Once again, he ran to his friend’s house and asked if there was any change in the situation. Once again, the answer was no. The little boy ran back and forth for most of the night, when his friend’s parents finally informed him that their son’s fever had broken and that he was sleeping peacefully now…

Names of the Tzaddikim

Rebbe Nachman of Breslev writes in Sefer HaMiddot that reciting the names of the tzaddikim can bring about a change in nature.

A woman came to me after a growth was detected on her uterus, and said that the doctors were demanding to perform an immediate operation that would render her unable to give birth to any more children. She took my advice and recited the names of the tzaddikim. A short while later the growth disappeared and the woman received a clean bill of health. Since then, she has given birth to more children as well.

Likutei Tefillot

A man suffered from severe back pains to the extent that he couldn’t lift the slightest weight. He asked one of this generation’s tzaddikim what to do. The tzaddik told him to recite all the prayers for healing in Rebbe Nathan of Breslov’s classic collection of prayers, “Likutei Tefillot.” He implemented the tzaddik’s advice to the letter. Within a relatively short period, his back was completely cured.

Everything will turn around for the best

Never forget that Hashem is G-d. Any Divine decree can be overturned with prayer, teshuva, and charity. Our sages teach us that even if a sharp sword rests on a person’s neck, the person shouldn’t give up hope. “Hope” means prayer, and the most cogent prayer is the sick person’s prayer for himself (see Rashi’s elaboration of Genesis 21:17).

Even though doing a Pidyon Nefesh and reciting the names of the tzaddikim are important, nothing so invokes Divine compassion for a sick person as his own personal prayer – speaking to Hashem in his own words. A person should ask for all his needs from Hashem, and especially for healing and good health. King David said (Psalm 30:3), “I cried out to You, Hashem, my G-d, and You healed me.”

One of my students was in a near-fatal automobile accident that left a gaping hole in his back that exposed his spine. The gap almost reached his kidneys. The wound became infected and the doctors had given up hope. My student was conscious and well aware of his critical situation. There was no rational procedure or cure. Up until the accident, my student would devote a few casual minutes to personal prayer, but nothing more. Now, I asked him to commit to speaking to Hashem for two hours a day – he agreed.

Every night when most everyone else was sleeping, he’d wheel himself out in a wheelchair to the hospital terrace. For hours on end, he’d beg Hashem to stimulate new tissue growth around his kidneys and spine. Little by little, to the amazement of all the doctors, new tissue began to grow until the gap was completely healed.

The Lachovitcher Rebbe used to say that when the doctors tell a patient that there’s no cure, and the patient reinforces himself with complete trust in Hashem, then all the gates of salvation and healing are opened…

A sick person shouldn’t wait for the doctors or sickness to turn to Hashem. Putting one’s complete trust in Hashem not only facilitates healing, but helps to keep healthy people healthy.

Don’t waste a moment!

As with incarceration, a sick person should utilize available time for self-evaluation and for soul searching. Many patients lie idle in hospital beds for hours; freed from the demands of a normally busy routine, the bedridden should take advantage of the time at their disposal. Oftentimes, a sick person’s bodily urges diminish dramatically, enabling one to look at the world objectively. At such times, the soul’s delicate voice gets a fair hearing. Many healthy people let their bellowing bodies drown out the soul’s voice.

How tragic when “loved ones” arrange for a television to be planted in front of a sick person’s face! Instead of utilizing their available time for the type of soul-searching that would lead to a full recovery, they waste it on folly.

Hashem receives tremendous gratification when a person passes the test of faith that accompanies affliction. Reinforcement of faith is a wonderful way to insure good health and a complete recovery of body, mind, and soul.