BS’D
Today the 29th of Tammuz is the yahrzeit of Rashi HaKadosh. May his merit protect Klal Yisrael and serve as an advocate on high, Amen.
Chazal teach us to pray with heartfelt intent that Hashem soon rebuild the Beit HaMikdash and hasten the geula. Why does Chazal find the need to emphasize that we ask for the redemption? Shouldn’t it be a given that every Jew pray for it to happen? Unfortunately to many it is not at the top of their request list.
When we find ourselves in the midst of our ‘personal sorrows’ we tend to forget about anything else. There is a Torah teaching that says, “The last of ones problems make a person forget the first of his problems.” The current issues at hand such as looming war, financial strain, marital strife, health and other mounting issues unfortunately take up so much of our brain space that we don’t seem to ‘remember’ the root cause of all difficulty; galut.
Many think, “How can I focus my mind on mourning Yerushalayim and the Beit HaMikdash when there are so many hardships I must cope with right now?” Yet if we delve deeply into this idea we will discover that we are experiencing the ‘symptoms’ associated with exile. As we put our minds and hearts into praying for solutions to personal sorrows we ought to keep in mind that they are offshoots of the real pain at hand. We are not in our ‘true place’ physically, emotionally and spiritually and therefore we are experiencing confusion and pain.
Klal Yisrael is living in a plague of darkness; restless over the present and terrified over the future. “Al Naharot Bavel Shahm Yashavnu… (On the rivers of Babylon there we sat ….)” we sat and wondered, ‘what will be?’ “Gam Bachinu b’Zochreinu et Tzion (Also we cried when we remembered Tzion {the destruction and devastation of Tzion})”. The Chatam Sofer ztk’l writes we were consumed by thoughts over our own devastation, yet we still remembered why they occur; the long and bitter exile and the destruction of Tzion. So too today we must connect all pain and suffering to our exile.
Today’s daily dose of emuna is dedicated to the refuel shleimah of Tal Talya bat Rivka and the newborn baby Meir Chaim Ben Tal Talya. This wonderful young woman (34), mother of three, is in critical need of our prayers right now.
She has stage IV cancer and is intensive care. We need to storm the heavens with our prayers so this decree is obliterated completely and she can go back to caring for her family. 2.5 weeks ago, she discovered the disease had riddled her intestines, after being admitted to the hospital for what they thought was dehydration. She was 28 weeks pregnant. A successful albeit complicated surgery was performed, with baby in utero, to remove the whole large intestine. 2 weeks later, the staples got undone and the infection began to swell her stomach. This infection meant an emergency C-section delivery on Sunday, July 5th, 2015. What should have been a momentous, happy celebration, was just news taken in stride, along with further reports of Tal’s critical condition. The wife is being intubated and sedated in order to flush the toxins out of her system and has not seen her new baby yet. The stomach has been left open in a sterile condition for five days now in order to allow the doctors to clean it out daily.
The baby is premature by 2 months, and is currently in NICU. He is on antibiotics and is also fighting for his life at this stage. These are horrible yissurim for a beautiful young mother to go through. She is a model citizen, and a very loving mother, and a holy Jew. Her two children at home, are being taken care of by neighbors and friends and family, while the father runs between his wife, his newborn, and hospitals, trying to find the best care for her.
Please don’t ignore this email. It is not for donations, it is not for anything other than the words that come out of your mouth. This link:http://tehilimyahad.com/mr. jsp?r=PBnJ0S7RGU is special because it tracks the amount of tehillim that is read for this one specific case. It shows how many people read, and how many donated their good deeds for the full recovery of this woman. I update Tal’s family and her husband with the incredible amount of prayers said so far (20 books finished in five days since I posted the link) and it gives him so much hope in a time of bleak darkness and constant worry, not knowing what will be with his wife.
Please take the time to say even one perek. The more the merrier. And please pass it along to just one person, but the one person who you know will read for Tal.
