162. The Rebbes Promise And The Brain Tumor Vanished

00:17 Shalom Aleichem, kindleh. As Gimmel Tammuz is around the corner, I wanted to share with you a personal story, a story that happened with my family and the Rebbe. An incredible story. My mother, Ole HaShalom, she was, uh, born in Russia, and she came out of Russia when many of the Hasidim came out right after the war. They moved to Kfar Chabad, and then she married my father, and then she moved to Belgium, where I was born and I grew up. My mother, um, was, um... You know, Rebbe told my mother to get involved in helping Jews in Russia because at that time, the Jews in Russia were unable to leave the country. As you know, the communists were very, very vicious and evil, and they didn't let Jews perform Torah mitzvahs. And many of them didn't have jobs because if a Jew in Russia would go to shul, even once to daven on a Shabbos, they would immediately take away his job, and he wouldn't have what to live from. It was a very, very, very difficult and hard time for the Jews in Russia. So my mother, Ole HaShalom, at the Rebbe's advice, the Rebbe told her to do this, is to make an organization where they raise money for tzedakah, and they use the tzedakah money to buy different things a- and send it to Russia to certain families that didn't have parnasah, that didn't have any income, and they would use those things. They would sell it, and from that they would

02:18 make enough money to live for a month or two months, and she would keep sending them. Hundreds of families were able to live because of those packages that my mother sent, my mother and her organization. Now, I'm mentioning this because it's very important to understand the story. One day... Now, in those days, the Rebbe would have a farbrengen at night, like at 9:30 at night, and people in Europe, Europe, it's six hours later than in New York. So we lived in Europe, in Belgium. So if everybody wanted to hear the Rebbe's farbrengen, how could you hear the Rebbe's farbrengen? In those days, they didn't have internet and computers. They had telephones. So we would gather together in somebody's house and hook up a telephone to a, to a big speaker, and we could listen to the Rebbe's farbrengen. But you have to understand, the Rebbe spoke 9:30 at night, which means six hours later, means 3:30 in the morning in Europe. But Hasidim who always wanted to hear the Rebbe's farbrengen, it didn't stop them. They would get up 3:00 in the morning, wash their hands, say Modeh Ani, wash their hands, say blessings, and would go to that house, and it happened to be my house, the house of my mother and father. That's when everybody was gathered together at 3:30 in the morning, and we would hear the whole farbrengen on the telephone. And usually, how did we know the Rebbe was having a farbrengen? Not always was it sure that the Rebbe

04:00 was gonna have a farbrengen. The Rebbe, there were certain days we all knew the Rebbe was gonna have a farbrengen. It was like Yut Zvat or Yut Bet Tammuz, Chof Av. There were days when we know the Rebbe was gonna have a farbrengen. But then there were days where the Rebbe suddenly announced he's making a farbrengen. We didn't know why, but sometimes the Rebbe would come back from the Ohel and said, "I'm gonna have a farbrengen." So how did people in Europe know that the Rebbe just announced suddenly, unexpectedly to have a farbrengen? So if somebody was in charge in New York, he would call all the different Chabad Lubavitch communities in the world and tell them, "Tonight there is a farbrengen the Rebbe just announced." And people would immediately call all the Lubavitcher Hasidim in that city, and people knew that they have to get up at 3:00 in the morning so they can hear the farbrengen. Now, the telephone would often c- uh, ring, you know, with this news that the Rebbe is going to farbreng in the middle of the night. In Europe, it was the middle of the night. Sometimes the Rebbe announced 7:00 at night that tonight at 9:30 he's gonna have a farbrengen, so it's only two... They only had two hours notice, two hours in advance. So by the time you called, it was already 1:00 in the morning in Europe. So the phone used to ring in my house sometimes at 1:00 saying, "The Rebbe's gonna farbreng

05:17 tonight at 3:30. Tell everybody to get up." And then my mother would get on the phone and call everybody and tell them to come over because in about two and a half hours the Rebbe's gonna speak. One night, my mother hears the phone ring, and she runs out of bed, and as she was running she fell, and she fell with her head against the bed, and she hurt herself really badly. She finally got herself up and picked up the phone and, and, um, she was told that the Rebbe's gonna have a farbrengen. She called everybody, but she had terrible headaches, and she took like Tylenol or aspirin, you know, what you take for a headache, but it didn't go away. So after a few days she went to a doctor. It turns out she had a problem. It wasn't from the fall. The fall just made it clear that she has a problem in her head. What the doctor found, he made some pictures, like X-rays of the brain, and he saw that there was actually a tumor. You know what a tumor is? Something in the brain is growing, and that's very, very bad. That means it's ienia machla. Right? It's a terrible illness. And that, Chas v'Shalom, can be very dangerous. And he told her the name of this tumor is called meningioma. It's a very serious, serious, serious problem. And he said to her, "If this tumor is growing more bigger and bigger, then we're gonna have to make an operation on

06:53 your brain. And unfortunately, this type of operation can end up with you losing your memory or causing damage to your brain. But this is the best thing we can do because if we don't do the surgery, Chas v'Shalom, you're gonna die." My mother was, uh, quite shocked, and she told the doctor, "I have to ask somebody first." He said, "Who are you gonna ask? I'm the doctor." She said, "Don't worry. I have someone I need to ask first." Of course, she was gonna ask the Rebbe. I was in New York City, learning in Seven Seventy, and my mother, Alav Ha-Shalom, Mir to Langi Yoram, said, "Please write into the Rebbe a note through the Rebbe's secretary, Reb Leibel Groner, and tell the Rebbe what the doctors are saying." A few hours later, an answer came back from the Rebbe not to do surgery. "Go to another doctor." My mother heard this, so she went to a different doctor, and she went to the biggest specialist in Belgium. This is the country where we lived. He was a Jew, but he didn't believe in anything. He didn't keep Torah mitzvahs. He didn't even believe in Hashem. He, he was a Jew, but he didn't believe in anything. And, and he said to her, "You must do surgery, otherwise you're in danger." My mother said, "I'm sorry. There's a Rebbe, a tzadik, a holy person, told me not to do the surgery, so I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to find another doctor." He said, "Okay, go find

08:25 another doctor." She found another doctor, very, very famous specialist, uh, who knows this disease very, very well, and he's very famous all over the world. He lived in France. She went to him, and he did X-rays, and he said, "Ah, you need surgery." So my mother called again to New York, "Tell the Rebbe that the second doctor also said I need surgery." So we wrote into the Rebbe. The Rebbe writes back a few hours later, "No surgery." He crossed out the word surgery on the note. He says, "No surgery. Go to another doctor." So we went to a very, very famous doctor in England. Also, he looked at her, did X-rays, surgery. And we wrote into the Rebbe, and the Rebbe again says, "No surgery. Go to another doctor." And so they went-- my mother went to five different very famous doctors, especially in this disease, in this illness, and they all said, "We're sorry, but this is-- Everybody knows that this cannot be cured. You cannot be cured only when you cut open the brain and you take out the tumor, and then hopefully, with Hashem's help, you will live. Although you might lose some of your memory, and your brain won't be the same, your sechel won't be the same. You-- There might be some, some stuff that's not so good, but it's better than dying." And so we wrote into the Rebbe that the fifth doctor said so. So, uh, my mother decided she's going to New York. She was going to

10:03 New York because her daughter, my sister, had a first child. She was gonna go and be with her to help her with the baby. So when she came to New York, she wrote herself to the Rebbe through the Rebbe's secretary, Rabbi Groner, what all the doctors are saying, and the X-rays show that the tumor is growing every week. It's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. That means she's in very big danger, and if she doesn't do the surgery within the next five weeks, it will be too late. She might die. So the Rebbe answered and said, "Don't listen to those doctors. Go to a big doctor here in America. And another thing, go also to a doctor who doesn't necessarily so big, but he's a friend. He's a friend of yours." And my mother didn't know what to do, 'cause all the doctors told her that it's for sure she needs surgery, and everybody knows that. Anybody who's a doctor will tell you right away, this is a known thing. Everybody knows that, that you need surgery for meningioma, this type of illness, this type of tumor. You have to do surgery, otherwise you're gonna die. This is a dangerous thing. Where is she gonna go tell a doctor, "Please, I asked all these doctors, and they said do surgery. Now can you please tell me no surgery?" I mean, what is she gonna do? How is she gonna get a doctor who's gonna say no, no to surgery? So somebody advised her there is

11:43 a, a Rebbe, like a Chasidishe Rebbe, not Chabad, of course. Um, his name is Rabbi Tversky, and he knows a lot of doctors, and he knows a lot about medicine. Make an appointment with him and tell him what all your doctors said, and show him the, the X-rays. He knows how to read X-rays. He's very familiar with, with, with X-rays and how to read them. And maybe he can find a doctor that will say no. He'll agree with the Rebbe. So she calls up, she starts looking in the phone book for Rabbi Tursky, but she by mistake found a different Tursky who is a doctor, but she didn't realize it was a Dr. Tursky, not Rabbi Tursky. So she calls Dr. Tursky by mistake, and she tells him the whole thing, and then she realizes, "Oh my, oh, I forge-- I made a mistake. This is the Dr. Tursky. I-I'm supposed to call a Rabbi Tursky." So but she, she felt bad because she already called him. She's on the phone with him. She couldn't say, "Hey, it's a mistake. I shouldn't call you." So she listened to him. She told him everything that's going on, and he said to her, "Listen, I'm not a brain doctor. I'm not a specialist in this, this place, this sh- this thing that you suffer from. But you can come and see me tomorrow at ten o'clock in the morning. Maybe I can help you find a doctor." My says, "Thank you very much." She realized she made

13:11 a mistake. Finally, she found the right number of the Rabbi Tursky. She calls him up, and he says, "Come eight o'clock in the morning." That means two hours before the other appointment. She goes eight o'clock to the Rabbi Tursky. She shows him the X-rays, and this Rabbi Tursky wasn't such a big Hasid of the Rebbe. So he looks at the X-ray and says, "Listen, I think you need surgery. I can see from the X-rays that this tumor is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It's very dangerous. I'm sorry. I, I don't know what the Rebbe is saying, but I can get you a very good doctor here that will help you do surgery." My said, "Thank you very much. I don't think you're the person I need." And then she's saying, "Where am I going from here?" Then she remembered that she made a mistake yesterday, and she called the wrong Tursky. And she thought, "Ah, maybe Who's the Rebbe's doctor, he comes to the Rebbe from time to time. He stays in my house. I'll invite you to my house for coffee, and you'll meet Dr. Reznik, and we'll talk over coffee. You'll become friends with him, and then you'll ask him the question, so we'll fulfill what the Rebbe said to ask a doctor, a friend. What a great idea. My mother says, "Great." My father and mother both went to Rabbi Klein's house, and there for coffee, they met Dr. Reznik. My mother never met him, but they started talking. Rabbi Klein

18:40 introduced them. My father and mother spoke to Dr. Reznik, and they talked and talked. And finally, my mother said to him, "Listen, you're a doctor. Can I ask you a question about my brain? I have a, a, a very dangerous tumor called meningioma. All the doctors say that I need surgery in Europe, and this is a known fact. But then I went to Dr. Bender, and Dr. Bender says, 'No, maybe it will stop growing,' which is a crazy thing to say. Why would a tumor stop growing suddenly? They saw every X-ray. Every week it was growing bigger and bigger and bigger. He says, 'Maybe it will stop growing.'" So Dr. Reznik says to my mother, "Listen, I'm not, uh, special in, in this field. I don't know much about brain tumors. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a doctor in a different part of the body. I don't know about brain tumors, but if Dr. Bender says, 'No,' maybe you wait. However..." You know when you say, "However," means but. And Rabbi Klein saw that he was gonna say something that is not so good, right? He said so far, "Maybe don't do it," and that's it. That's all we want him to say. We don't have to say anything more, however, but, no but, just no surgery. So Rabbi Klein immediately interrupted him and says, "Wait a second. Did you say you want another coffee? Did you say this?" He confused him, and he forgot to finish his sentence. So we got what the Rebbe wanted,

20:02 that a big specialist doctor said the words no surgery, and a friend, a doctor who became sort of a friend, said no surgery, however, but he didn't finish his sentence, which means he basically says no surgery, and that's it. My mother left the house quickly, so he couldn't change his mind. And then she had yechidus with the Rebbe. It was actually this time of the year, Yud Beis Tammuz time. My mother was very, very, uh, excited and emotional because she saw that the Rebbe's performing a big moifis for her, and he's even getting doctors to say no when everybody knows you do need surgery for this. And so she, in yechidus, she was crying. She was very emotional, and the Rebbe smiled and said to her, "I want you to forget about all the doctors and the X-rays. Don't go. Don't do anything anymore. You should take the X-rays and put them on top of your bookcase. You don't even look at them, so there's to worry about them, and everything will be good." And then the Rebbe said to her, "You think you came to America to doctors? You think you came to America to get doctors to tell you whether you need surgery or not? You came-- The real reason you came to America is Hashgacha Protis, is that there are Jews in America, Lubavitch women, who need to learn from you how to help Jews in Russia. Jews in Russia are suffering so much. They need help, and we need to send

21:38 them money, so they're helpless, so they can live and do Torah mitzvahs secretly. And I want you to make a group, get a group together here in Crown Heights, and tell the women what you're doing in Europe, and they should do the same thing here and help Russian Jews." My mother-- And then the Rebbe said, "And then you wouldn't have to worry about any problems in your brain, any diseases." My mother did what the Rebbe said. She gathered women, and she te- taught them how to help Jews in Russia, and then she went back to Europe, and she went back to the original doctor, the big specialist, big famous doctor, who was a Jew, but not, didn't believe in anything, and he saw her, like, a few weeks later. He said to her, "Did you do brai- surgery?" And she said, "No." He said, "It's impossible. Let me take a X-ray." This was about a month later. Takes an X-ray, and he's, like, shocked. He says, "Since the last X-ray, it's the same. It didn't grow anymore. Before that, every week it got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Suddenly, after the last one, nothing grew. It stopped growing." As Dr. Bender had said, he says, "This is unbelievable." So he said, "Listen, you come back in six months. We can check again." She comes back in six months, and she see the new X-ray shows that the brain tumor is getting shrinking, smaller, smaller. He says, "What? Smaller? I never saw this. It

23:07 either gets bigger, bigger, but smaller? Never, never saw such a thing. I don't know. I don't know what to me- I don't know what to, how to, how to explain it." He says, "Come back in a year." Come back in a year, and this time it disappeared. Nothing. There's nothing there. He says, "This is unbelievable. I'm gonna talk to my friends, all the professors in the next conference of doctors. I'm gonna tell them this amazing thing, that it's possible for meningioma, that tumor, to shrink and bec- and disappear." My mother tells him, "No, this is nothing to do with medicine. This is a miracle. It's a moifis." He says, "No, I don't believe in a miracle." My mother says, "No, you don't understand. You yourself said you never saw this before. That means it's-- Normally, it's not possible that it would disappear. This is a special thing. The Rebbe said." She tells him the whole story and what the Rebbe said. And she tells him, "How do you think the Rebbe knew? How did the Rebbe know that this will disappear?" Anyways, now the Rebbe told her to take all the X-rays and to put it above the bookcase so that she shows her emunah and a trust in Hashem that she won't need it. So when she got home, she put it on the top shelf inside the bookcase, and she didn't think about it, and her headaches went away after that. A year later, she started having headaches again. She thinks, "What am

24:31 I doing wrong?" She remembered the Rebbe said to take the X-rays and put it above the bookcase, which is even further away from you, so you have your emunah showing complete emunah in the Rebbe and the Rebbe's promise and the Deibesh's bracha. So she took the, the X-rays, put them on top of her bookcase, and that's it, and after that, she didn't have any, any-- She didn't have any, any headaches anymore, and she lived for another maybe 20 years more, and she didn't die from this. She died from a different disease when she was in her 80s. So here we learn the importance, first of all, to follow what the Rebbe says to the last detail. The Rebbe says put it over the book, put-- to show your emunah, right? And that sometimes the Rebbe not only showed a miracle, but he wanted the miracle to be done through a doctor, through nature, that nature would say, "Yeah, this can be possible," even though it's not possible. Hashem should give us the zechus to have all the brachos of the Rebbe come to us in everything that we need. Have a meaningful Gimmel Tammuz.