Each day passed with a sense of victory, a sense of anticipation, of emunah, of hope. Day 10, Day 20, Day 30… Slowly, the countdown crawled toward Day 33.
As told to C.S. Teitelbaum by David Feiner
IJust before last Purim, the mispallelim at London’s Sadigura Beis Medrash learned that our friend and fellow mispallel Chaim* had been diagnosed with cancer. The situation was very grave. He was told he would have to go through radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery as well. It was not clear what should be done first: surgery to remove the growth, or the treatments to kill the cancer cells. After careful discussion with surgeons and gedolim it was decided to start with the treatments, to be followed by surgery.
For six months Chaim endured aggressive courses of radiation and chemotherapy. The regimen took its toll on him physically but he kept pushing forward. Once that stage of treatment would come to close, he’d have to wait a few weeks before having another MRI to ascertain the size of the tumor, after which the surgeons would excise it completely. Despite the powerful radiation and chemotherapy treatments, the surgeon felt there was only a one percent chance that the tumor would be entirely gone. At most, he hoped that it would be significantly smaller.
Upon our rav’s advice, the members of our shul realized it was time for us laypeople to take action, especially since there were a few other mispallelim who also needed a refuah. After all, the surgeon may be Hashem’s shaliach, but we have a direct line of communication with Him. And the timing — right before Rosh Hashanah — meant that when the gates of mercy were wide open.
Create a free account to keep reading.
