The Righteous 36

How I Met Dr. Ed Taub (Part of the series on How We Mother the World: Acts of Righteousness)

Photo Description: Sage Justice is standing, profile showing, long auburn waves of hair down her back while wearing a fitted purple dress showing her protruding belly. She is five months pregnant in this photo from years ago although she looks more like she’s nine months pregnant due to a medical condition she had at the time called: Polyhydramnious (too much amniotic fluid). Photo by Melinda Kelley

I was deeply afraid to become a mother. I had many reasons ranging from an intuitive feeling that I had an undiagnosed genetic condition that I feared passing on to a child (turned out to be true) to a fear of giving birth to The Bad Seed, a film that terrified me (turned out to be false).

If anything, I gave birth to a child who could very well be one of the Righteous 36, but I haven’t told her that, the words just spilled on to this page in this moment, in essence I haven’t told myself that either. I was just looking for a way to tie in the Mother’s Day themed photo, mixed with the story of The Righteous 36 and how I met Dr. Ed, and that revelation about my daughter jumped out of my fingers onto this ink screen. I promise that’s not what this essay is about.

Time will be the passage of truth. This is a companion piece to a story I wrote entitled, How We Mother the World: Acts of Righteousness. If you enjoy it, please do let me know in the comments. Your engagement helps more than you know.

The Righteous 36

“Mommy, are you one of the 36?”

I bowed my head and said quietly, “No one knows who the 36 are, not even the 36 themselves.”

There is a teaching from the Babylonian Talmud that every generation has “not less than” 36 righteous souls living on earth. Without these souls, the belief is that the world will end. My base understanding is that the purpose of the 36 is to save the world through acts of righteousness.

There are many rituals of all religions, which I find to be somewhat superstitious in nature; but I often do them anyway (such as dipping my apple in honey for good luck on Rosh Hashanah). I treat religious stories with the same deference: whether they are truth or myth, I find value in considering their meaning.

The more chaotic the outside world becomes, the more time we as a family spend strengthening our inner world through our spiritual beliefs.

We practice meditation and raising our frequency; but we also read stories (legends), such as Tzadikim Nistarim, otherwise known as the 36 or Lamed Vav Tzadikim. I can’t think of any time in my life when the notion of humanity being saved has been more desired than now.

I told my daughter, “I really believe that the story of the 36 righteous souls is to inspire us all to act as if we are one of the 36.”

Act as if. The fact of the matter as to who is, or is not, part of the 36 is not as important as is the choice to act as if everyone is a righteous soul.

“What does it mean to be righteous?” my 10-year-old daughter asked.

I read her the definition of the word; but as always, she was more interested in what her parents believe a thing to be than she was in what Merriam-Webster defines a thing to be.

Self-Righteousness versus Righteousness

Self-righteous is a certainty that one is morally superior. Righteous is the state of being morally right, virtuous. When we confuse the two, we denigrate what is truly righteous for fear of appearing self-righteous. Thus, the anti-hero rises on the mound of buried moral courage.

Righteousness is not a life of perfection. Humans are only perfect in their inherent imperfections. At the core, righteousness is awareness. It is living life with an awakened mindfulness of everyone in the world, versus living a life of sleepwalking apathy and self-focused, reactionary defensiveness.

To be righteous is to live a life of ethical virtue and morality, or more literally, to simply do what’s “right.”

The question of course is, what is “right?” And that is where imperfections and the notion of sin enter. “Right” can be a complex construct that is context dependent. Perhaps, “right” is merely: not doing “wrong.”

While we might not always know what the right thing to do is, we almost always know in our hearts when we do something wrong. We feel a twinge of guilt, we find ourselves justifying our choice or claiming to “not care” about what others think. Whereas, when we are heart-centered, we care about everything, to some extent.

Many people today seem to live disconnected from the heart. When we do something that lacks righteousness, it is usually from a place of being in reactive mode, from fear, ego, and anger.

Righteousness puts those feelings aside and asks, “If I were coming from a state of grace, and a place of unconditional love, how would I handle this situation?”

When I was a child, I believed that the righteous 36 were the people I saw asking that aforementioned question and they included Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gandhi. I now make eye contact with every homeless person I see and know that the righteous 36 can be anyone.

We teach by example; we learn through inspiration. When we can touch the hearts of others through simple acts of kindness, compassion, and unconditional love, we ignite the light of righteousness in ourselves and others.

Perhaps, to be righteous, is to simply stay grounded by standing our moral ground. In this way, may the 36 righteous souls be a symbol for our own righteousness, the way we look to Lady Liberty’s torch to symbolize enlightenment.

In the end, the path of enlightenment and righteousness may be the ultimate freedom from oppression.

How I met Dr. Edward Taub

In answer to the prompt “The Health Professional Who Listened,” “The Righteous 36” is the piece I reference on YouTube in my Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, “EDS Awareness Series” (playlist).

I was on the verge of giving up on my health care journey, because I was trapped in an avalanche of bureaucratic red tape. I couldn’t get past the limitations of my insurance company to get to the healthcare I needed. In the midst of my grieving process of frustration, something kept nudging me to write about the recent conversation I’d had with my daughter about The Righteous 36.

I’ve learned that when it comes to my intuition, it’s better to listen more and question less. I wrote a version of what is written here, on a now defunct blog; and within 24 hours of publishing that piece, a man, Dr. Edward Taub, reached out to me. He said he had been researching the topic of the righteous 36 because his close friend and colleague had called him a mensch and a member of the righteous 36, and he wanted to know more about it. After finding my piece and resonating with my writing, he said I reminded him of his mother who believed in the saying, “Love is all there is.”

Dr. Ed, as we called him, quickly became the best medical advocate I’ve ever had. Of all the places in the globe where he could have been located, he turned out to be in one of the neighboring communities of the place I’d just moved to. There were so many synchronistic elements that seemed to be in divine alignment that I actually thought at first that I was being pranked. He had medical privileges at the hospital I had been assigned to. He either went to school with, or had gone through residency with, or had worked with, or had been introduced to every medical professional my child and I needed. Medicine, it turns out, is a much smaller world than we are led to believe; but it takes a health care provider who truly cares to make those connections.

Dr. Ed became our primary doctor that day. I like to believe that his blessed-memory mother orchestrated this all from the spirit world to bring us together, as Dr. Ed, like me, would often ask the the spiritual powers that be to use him for the greatest good. When we ask to be guided to help those most in need, we are.

As I wrote in Mel Robbins and Plagiarism, “Toni Morrison is quoted as saying, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower someone else.’” If you know your knowledge, power, and life experience can help another and you choose not to, what are you doing; and why are you here?

Dr. Edward Taub was everything I wish every doctor would be. He asked, “How can I help?” He listened, he took action, and he actually helped. He reached out to old colleagues; and with a simple phone call or email, he found a way to get my daughter and me established with all the specialists we needed.

Within a few weeks, he was able to accomplish what I had been struggling to accomplish for nearly a year. He showed, through his love, how simple it can be to get our needs met, when people actually care. I will be forever grateful for meeting and knowing this beautiful man, this mensch, this member of the righteous 36. I will be publishing a tribute to him in August 2025, on the one-year anniversary of his passing.

Thank you for reading a piece of my heart and keeping this man and his loved ones in your prayers, if prayer is something you believe in. If prayer is not in your Mary Poppins bag, perhaps at least you can remember the power of one and that you are the one with the power.

Sage Justice © February 7, 2025 www.SageWords.org This concept/theory/poem is original to Sage Justice. If you use it, please give credit and link to original work. Thank you.

Description for the visually impaired-Black and white photo of Sage Justice, wearing poet’s black, eye glasses, facing the camera, resting her chin on her hand, while sitting outside near a patch of lavender in France, at the Writers and Artists-in-Residence at Chateau d’Orquevaux. Photo by Margot Hartford.

Sage Justice is an award-winning poet, author, critically acclaimed performing artist, and intensely sincere, bold humanitarian activist.

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