Excuses, Excuses

I first met Avi following a hospitalization around Pesach.

He was convinced that his medicines weren’t kosher l’Pesach and had stopped them. By the fourth night of Chol Hamoed he’d stopped sleeping and was engaged in a project to write what he called “The World’s Largest Mezuzah” even though he’d never been trained as a sofer.

Once Avi was restarted on his mood stabilizer, we began working together and all seemed well — until Shavuos when he told me that he was going to have to miss a few doses.

“You see, I need to stay up, Dr. Freedman,” he explained as he noticed my obvious concern. “Learning all night on Shavuos is a mitzvah. Would you rather I just didn’t tell you that I’d skipped?”