Tuesday, December 27th, 2011
On the seventh floor of Shaari Tzedek, as in any major hospital, is a room where cancer patients receiving chemo go for their treatments. Every day, it is filled with men and women who must sit while medicine that will make them feel horribly sick drips into their veins. Some come alone, while others are accompanied by those who love them. As the hours go by, they will feel sicker and sicker.
One cannot escape the understanding that for some in the room, the medicine will not be able to defeat the disease. That thought alone can make the room feel dark and oppressive. But incredibly, there are also many bright lights that shine in the midst of such darkness. Here are eight of them that I was fortunate enough to see:
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Tags: bed, cakes and cookies, cart, chemo, disease, Ladies, Neve Daniel, person, Room, shining lights, sufferring, warm smile
Posted in Israel, Longing for the Dawn, Personal, Stella | 12 Comments »
Friday, July 29th, 2011
The whole “day by day” attitude that I have had just isn’t working for me. Days are simply too short and they end too quickly. Focusing on each day means that nights are rotten. I simply can’t sleep and find myself pacing around at all sorts or weird hours. Even the dog is telling me to calm down and get some sleep.
So now, I am officially announcing that we are going to have a great week. That’s right — from right now, we know that this coming week will be a really good one. It will be good and it will be normal. Let’s make it a week and a day so we can throw in next Shabbat as well, o.k?
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Tags: attitude, beating the odds, cancer statistics, cold food, everything, good shape, person, road, Week, weird hours
Posted in Israel, Stella | 15 Comments »
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
Lately, I have been asking people to pray for my wife’s health. We are anxiously awaiting the results of a biopsy performed on “something” (excuse the medical term) that they found in her stomach. No, they have ruled out leftover cholent beans.
Now, I don’t really care if you are a black-hatted, beard-to-the-ground Satmar Hasid, a lesbian, pregnant Reform rabbi, Christian, Buddhist, Shinto, Muslim, or really frum agnostic. If you believe that there is some Unified Force that can control the universe, do me a favor and ask Him/Her/It to please cut Stella some slack.
In the Jewish tradition, we believe that using a person’s Hebrew name is important. I’m not sure why because believe me, G-d knows Stella very well. If he wanted to give us all an example of how chesed (kindness) should be performed, then Stella is the super-model. The only one who would say that Stella is not the embodiment of kindness would be Stella herself — and that kind of proves my point.
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Tags: biopsy, break, cholent, colgate university, conversion, excuse, Facebook, hasid, health, hebrew name, jewish tradition, Kochevet, leftover, mail request, mail status, medical term, member of the tribe, Neve Daniel, person, point, potomac maryland, pray, rabbi, reform rabbi, rock, rock star, Satmar, star, Stop, super model, term, time, University, way, weather traffic, wife
Posted in Israel, Personal, Stella | 40 Comments »
On the seventh floor of Shaari Tzedek, as in any major hospital, is a room where cancer patients receiving chemo go for their treatments. Every day, it is filled with men and women who must sit while medicine that will make them feel horribly sick drips into their veins. Some come alone, while others are accompanied by those who love them. As the hours go by, they will feel sicker and sicker.
