My recent appendicitis and the Chortkover's yahrzeit 13 Kislev

As wikipedia will tell you:

 

Appendicitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. It is classified as a medical emergency.

 

Last Thursday the stomach pain was terrible and by Friday Erev Shabbos I was in the emergency room of Hadassa Ein Karem hospital on the outskirts of Jerusalem. To make a long story short we caught it in the nick of time and I had emergency surgery and was out before Shabbos. Baruch Hashem it was a success and I am home recovering.

 

Please daven for my recovery Tal Moshe ben Esther Frima.

 

 

During my hospital stay on parashas VaYishlach it was the Yorzeit of the holy Reb Yisroel Chortkover, zy"a and I was reading my complimentary copy of HaModia and I happened to read the following Chassidishe Ma'aseh which I will now share with you about appendicitis:

 

Rav Yisroel Friedman of Chortkov was a son of Rav Dovid Moshe of Chortkov and a grandson of the heilige Rizhiner zy"a. He himself had a grandson, named Reb Dovid Moshe later of Edgeware. More about him here http://www.nishmas.org/gdynasty/chapt13.htm

 

The story told was about Reb Dovid Moshe, when he was an older man his son was home with him alone. His son Reb Dov Ber Friedman related that his father's pain was intense and his suffering was great, this was unusual since once when he had had a heart attack he had not even complained! So when he told his son that the pain was unbearable he grew frightened and accompanied him to the emergency ward. Reb Dovid Moshe had been sick of late with the illness that a year later would claim his life and the doctors and nurses had been treating him and knew him well. They were therefore quite surprised at his reaction.

 

After examining him as he lay on the hospital bed and as they wheeled him towards the surgery ward the doctor mentioned to the nurse that it is a sever attack of appendicitis and that they were going to operate and do emergency surgery to remove his appendix before it burst.

 

When Reb Dovid Moshe heard this he began to protest loudly that under no circumstances whatsoever did he agree to the surgery! The doctors and nurses were at a loss, on the one hand they saw he was suffering and in great pain, on the other hand here the man they knew well lay there adamntly refusing surgery. When the doctor suggested instead an x-ray he agreed, and lo and behold the x-ray indicated a fracture pressing against his stomach which gave the impression that he had an enlarged appendix. When the astonished Doctor explained they would do surgery to correct this fracture Reb Dovid Moshe agreed.

 

Afterwards the son turned to his father for an explanation of this seemingly prophetic episode, Reb Dovid Moshe who was to weak to be totally anesthitzied and was therefore awake after only local anesthetic was applied explained:

 

"When I was a young biy I suffered greatly from appendicitis. After the second occasion the doctors wanted to operate saying that if the situation was delayed further it might rupture and causes an infection, heaven forbid. My zeide the holy Reb Yisroel Chortkover visited me bikur cholim and sat on my bedside and said to me "you will not suffer from your appendix anymore." And therefore my parents did allow them to operate on me. Now when the doctor said it was appendicitis I know he must be mistaken! For did not my holy zeide say to me that my appendix would not bother me again? However to do an xray I agreed and to repair the fracture I agreed as well, because that is certainly possible and when it comes to sound medical advice I listen to the doctor."

 

 

(Source Rav Yechiel Yehoshua Rabinowitz Tiferes Yisroel vaYetze p3 - as it appears in this past week's Hamodia supplement on the article about Rav Yisroel Friedman of Chortkov in Hebrew p12-13)

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