The Caffeinated Thinker

Post Title: Hope

Post Date: October 25, 2013

This year on Hashanah Rabba, one of the holiest days of the year, we were fortunate to receive a beautiful gift from G-d. My husband came home from morning prayers and told me there was a visitor in Temecula for the second part of the holiday of Succot. He was visiting with his wife from the Upper West side of Manhattan, and they might be joining us for the meal later that afternoon.

Later that day, amidst the chaos of preparing for a three-day holiday, the most beautiful couple walked in. I didn’t have much time to talk to them, but they shared many stories with my mother-in-law. The husband’s college roommate was getting married on Shabbat, and they were staying in a winery close enough to the wedding that they could walk. After the meal, this beautiful woman gave me a hug and started to cry. “Ask your mother-in-law why I needed to spend the holiday in Temecula so I could meet you today.”

I looked at my mother-in-law and asked, “What did she tell you?”

This is the story as she remembers it…

“When they first got married, they went on their honeymoon to a very beautiful island. They went bungee jumping and something went terribly wrong. She crashed into a rock and broke her back and neck and was unconscious. There were no adequate hospitals nearby, so they chartered a plane back to New York. The doctors there put her through many tests and came back with very bad news. She had broken almost every bone in her body and was absolutely brain dead. It was time for her new husband to say goodbye. But after a few months, her fingers and toes began to move. The doctor was quick to assure her husband that it meant nothing; it was just reflexes. A few months later, she woke up. After many more tests, the doctor informed them that although she had far surpassed his expectations, it would not get better than this. She would never walk and never have children.”

She then told my mother-in-law, “I came to Temecula today to tell you this. I walked into your son’s house, pregnant with my second child with one message: There is only One healer, and He is Hashem!!”

The reason I am sharing this story with you, readers, is because my story is your story, too. My heartache is yours, my little miracles are yours, and my big miracle will be yours, too. When you stop me on the street to ask how we are and to give us blessings, I know it is not just words. I know you mean it from the deepest part of your soul, and it moves me to tears.

This brings me hope. Hope for a miracle, hope for my family, and hope for the thousands of families just like mine. Hope is an interesting thing. It has an energy and excitement accompanying it. It makes us feel happy, positive, and brave. It is the opposite of being frozen with fear. Hope spurs us into action. Hope is not a luxury; it is an absolute necessity.

Some feel that being hopeful is being in denial of your situation. You are not being realistic about your future. Doctors look at us with pity. But there is only one healer, and He is Hashem!! We are strong believers in Hashem. We have always been; it is deeply ingrained in our DNA.

The day we received our diagnosis, was to say the least, a traumatic day. Our long drive home was silent, cold, and fearful. When I finally could speak, I asked Yitzi, “What have you always wanted to do, but haven’t done yet?” He answered immediately, as if he was thinking the same thing. “We never wrote a Torah or built a mikvah” (ritual bath). Silly me, I actually thought he was also going to say “Take you to Hawaii.”

Well, we have begun dream number one. We have started writing a Torah. We are calling it “Torat Chaim” — the Torah of Life. Please join us in bringing this dream to life: rabbiyitzistorah.com.

• Title: The Caffeinated Thinker
• Address: thecaffeinatedthinker.blogspot.com
• Author: Dina Hurwitz
• From: Temecula
• Blogging since: April 2012

[Post edited for length]