Stroke of Inspiration 

Rabbi Paysach Krohn – world-renowned speaker, mohel, and author of the bestselling Maggid series — has spent decades telling tales that uplift and inspire.  But rebounding from a stroke he suffered just over a year ago, and drawing on his challenges to provide chizuk to others, might just be his most important story of all

IT was during those golden moments when the hectic energy of Friday afternoon suddenly dissolves into the palpable kedushah of Shabbos that the unthinkable happened.

Hundreds of men at Agudath Israel of America’s 2024 convention were making their way through Connecticut’s Armon Stamford Hotel toward the shul on the afternoon of December 6, 2024, ready to usher in Shabbos Hamalkah with a heartfelt davening. Renowned lecturer, author, and mohel Rabbi Paysach Krohn was one of them, and he was looking forward to addressing the oilem at his highly anticipated annual “Friday Night with the Maggid” post-seudah address that consistently drew hundreds of listeners. The convention theme of “Believers – B’emunaso yichyeh” was one that resonated strongly with Rabbi Krohn, and as he made his way to the shul, the notes for his 10:15 p.m. session were neatly tucked away in a two-pocket folder he was carrying in his hand.

Suddenly, without warning, alarmed voices rang out, shattering the tranquility of the moment. Rabbi Krohn distinctly remembers hearing someone shouting, “Catch him, he’s falling!” Oddly enough, Rabbi Krohn knew that he was the “him” being spoken about. Stranger still, he was quite sure that the Hatzalah member sounding the alarm was wrong.

“I’m not falling,” Rabbi Krohn called out, but as the words came out of his mouth, he knew that something was amiss. His slurred speech made it painfully clear, even to him, that he was having a stroke.