Twelve Steps and Yiddishkeit

A recovering person writes:

I’m struggling with synthesizing and incorporating the 12 steps into my life due to the fact that many of the practises and tenets are sourced from Christianity and other non-Jewish sources. The various prayers that accompany the 12 steps as well as the practice of ‘hitting the knees’ makes me feel very uncomfortable.

Rabbi Twerski Responds:

I’ve often said that Bill Wilson plagiarized mussar. If a non-Jewish source quotes a Jewish principal, that does not disqualify it.

`We do not say prayers that are part of another religion’s liturgy. I’m not aware of the Serenity Prayer being in Christian liturgy.

“Hitting the knees” is a symbol of humbling oneself before G-d. In the amida (shemona esrei) we genuflect four times, and although our knees do not hit the ground, we humble ourselves before G-d twelve times every day.