Imagine for yourself a community where the weekly Torah portion is the subject for daily conversation, where Shabbat is anxiously awaited all week long, and where God is seen as a vital part of one's life. I speak not of a yeshiva, a Jewish summer camp, or a spiritual retreat center, but of a residential recovery center for Jewish alcoholics, drug addicts, gambling addicts, sex addicts, and food addicts -- a place called Beit T'shuvah.

When I first heard about Beit T'shuvah, I was a third-year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, doing my year of study at Machon Schechter in Jerusalem. The Israel year of rabbinical school is a precious year of learning, affording students from JTS in New York, the Ziegler School in Los Angeles, and Machon Schechter, the Conservative rabbinical school in Israel, a unique opportunity to learn together for the year.

It was in this diverse conclave of future rabbis that I met Mark Borovitz. He asked questions of me and of the Torah that few dare to ask, such as "What does your soul look like?" or "What question in your life is this parashah the answer to?" Mark also began to describe the unusual community in Los Angeles that he called home. Although only half-way through with rabbinical school, Mark was clearly already functioning as a rabbi for the community of Jewish recovering addicts at Beit T'shuvah. Mark was also the first Jew I had ever met who himself identified as an addict in recovery.

I could not at that time imagine what a residential facility for Jewish recovering addicts would be like, much less how a group of drug addicts and ex-cons would respond to me, a somewhat sheltered 25-year-old female rabbinical student. But I was intrigued. I wanted to know what Beit T'shuvah was really about. I wanted to see what Judaism could have to do with 12 Step Recovery. And I wanted to meet some of the people of whom Mark spoke with such love and pride. So I set out, later that summer, to spend a few weeks shadowing Mark and interning at "The House of Return."

In Los Angeles I met Mark's wife, Harriet Rosetto, the tireless director of Beit T'shuvah and the courageous visionary who founded the institution. Originally hired by the Jewish Committee for Personal Service, a program of Gateways Hospital that does outreach to Jews in the Southern California prison system, Harriet quickly grew frustrated by the cycle of recidivism that she saw. She realized that the majority of offenders she encountered were imprisoned for addiction-related crimes.

At the same time, she recognized the resistance of most Jews to taking part in Alcoholics Anonymous or in other recovery programs that existed, as they believed them to be inherently Christian. Even those with no Jewish practices or affiliations were generally reluctant to attend meetings held in church basements and uncomfortable being in groups that said the Lord's Prayer. Ultimately, it was an article by Dr. Abraham Twerski entitled "Judaism and the Twelve Steps" that gave Ms. Rosetto the idea of opening her own half-way house for Jews. In 1987, with the help of Gateways Hospital, Harriet acquired an old house in a run-down neighborhood of Los Angeles and opened the doors of Beit T'shuvah, a home for Jewish ex-cons and addicts that would integrate Jewish spirituality and the principles of 12 Step Recovery.

Every day at Beit T'shuvah begins with a pre-breakfast hour of lively Torah study, led either by Mark or by a devoted alumnus of the program. For Mark, Torah is a lifeline. It is the vehicle that enabled him to turn his life around in jail some 15 years ago, and it is the mirror in which he insists every resident can find his/her own reflection.

At Beit T'shuvah, Jewish learning is not an intellectual endeavor. It is an emotional, psychological, and spiritual journey, and it is vital to one's survival.

"I need Torah. I need community. And I need God," one resident told me. "That's the only way I'm going to kick this!"

12 Step Recovery is based on these same principles. It is predicated on developing a relationship with a Higher Power, and, as numerous residents taught me, it is all about t'shuvah. T'shuvah can be translated variously as "return," "repentance," and "response." And, as Mark teaches, it is about all three of those actions -- returning to God, to one's family, and to one's community; making amends to all those whom one has harmed; and approaching life with a new response.

A look at the 12 Steps reveals the same priorities. Steps 1-3 are about admitting our need for God, recognizing that our lives have become unmanageable and coming to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. Step 4 instructs us to make "a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." Step 5 involves admitting "to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs." Steps 6-10 continue this process of repentance. And finally, Steps 11 and 12 teach us to use prayer and meditation to deepen our relationships with God, to practice these principles in all our affairs, and to carry the message to others in need.

I marvel at the Jewishness of the 12 Steps. And, at the same time, I understand why Jews may be put off by them. We are not taught to speak so openly of a need for God. We don't talk that much about God, period. It does not surprise me that Jews think this is Christian, particularly when it is stated in church basements and not in synagogue social halls. But 12 Step Recovery does not have to be a Christian experience. On the contrary, it can do wonders for a person's spiritual life as a Jew. I know it can. I have experienced it for myself.

One of the experiments I decided to try, as the rabbinic intern at Beit T'shuvah, was a daily learner's service, every morning after Torah study. "These guys will make fun of my sappy spiritual stuff," I thought to myself. "They shoot heroin and smoke crack. Are they really going to want some young woman rabbi to teach them to put on tefillin?" But my fears were proven wrong. They desperately wanted to know what Judaism had to say about connecting with God, what the siddur might be able to teach them about prayer, and what kind of regularity or focus tallit and tefillin might give to their lives. They treasured the opportunity to pray together in an authentically Jewish way. They cherished the forum to actually discuss their spiritual struggles with other Jews.

What I discovered in the sacred space of our morning prayer group, however, was really only a microcosm of Beit T'shuvah as a whole. This is a place where Jews can start to peel back the layers of falsehood and pain that have shaped them for so many years and begin to know their pure souls. It is a place where Jews can come to see the spiritual voids that underlie their addictions and begin to fill them with healthier relationships -- with God, with other people, and with themselves. It is a place where Jews of all ages, Jewish backgrounds, geographic origin, and socioeconomic status can live together and feel, often for the first time, that they are not alone in the struggle. It is not simply a house for Jewish recovering addicts. Beit T'shuvah is indeed a home.

Some additional facts about Beit T'shuvah:

In the Fall of 1999, Beit T'shuvah moved from its original location to a beautiful new facility on Venice Boulevard, close to Los Angeles' highly Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood. The new facility houses both men and women, and is able to accommodate nearly 100 residents between its primary care program, its sober living program, and its independent living program. Residents generally stay for several months, often graduating to the sober living and independent living programs in which they work outside of Beit T'shuvah but still live within the community.

The primary care program consists of group and individual work based on Jewish, psychotherapeutic, and 12 Step models. Each day includes Torah study, group work, house responsibilities, communal meals, and outside 12 Step meetings geared toward one's specific addiction. On Friday nights, the extended Beit T'shuvah community comes together to celebrate Shabbat with unique services that combine prayer, singing, gratitude, and t'shuvah. Residents' families, alumni, and members of the wider Jewish community join together in the new chapel for services, followed by a communal Shabbat dinner, cooked by the residents of Beit T'shuvah. The facility also provides High Holiday and other services throughout the year for the extended community of Congregation Beit T'shuvah, which now consists of several hundred members.

For more information, please contact Beit T'shuvah at   or(310) 204-5200.

Rabbi Sarah Graff is the spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, Calif.