Lost and Found

As told to Raizel Rosenberg

I’Ma chassidishe kollel yungerman (can I still call myself that if I’m pushing forty?) who has been blessed in so many ways. I still get satisfaction from sitting and learning all day, I have a caring wife who works hard to support my learning and tend to our three wonderful children, kein ayin hara.

I couldn’t ask Hashem for anything more. But I don’t know if I would ever have properly appreciated the gifts He’s given me until He took me out of my comfort zone, and arranged for me to help a mysterious stranger I never even met. Here’s how it happened.

My oldest son, Sruly, is a brilliant yeshivah bochur, with amazing middos — and everything else proud parents could hope for. But last year, Sruly contracted a worrisome case of Covid. His illness stretched on for days, then weeks, then months. In our rising panic, we did everything — visited the best doctors in the field, obtained lists of prescriptions and natural remedies, fed him nutritious food, spending hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars, all to no avail. Sruly was only getting weaker and weaker.

Then we heard about a specialist named Dr. Klatzkin in a far-off city who dealt specifically with cases like ours. What would parents not do for their child? We booked plane tickets and were on our way.