No, he’s not crazy like he’s a psychiatric patient, more like he’s broken.It’s like something happened to him and his brain is broken.
The phone call from my good friend Rav Ratzabi took me by surprise.
He wanted to book an appointment for his elderly Uncle Yichye, who had lived his entire life in Yemen before moving in with his nephew and their French-speaking household in 2013, when he arrived with one of the last groups of immigrants from that country.
Uncle Yichye was suffering from PTSD due to the stresses and oppression the kehillah faced in the years before he left, even though the community was officially protected. Somehow, although he’d survived many decades under the radar, finally being safe triggered haunting fears.
“The thing is,” Rav Ratzabi continued, “is that he doesn’t speak Hebrew, so I’ll come along as his translator. And the second thing is that he’s blind, and I want to make sure you’re okay with him bringing his seeing eye dog.”
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