Dr. Avrohom Seligson - Part I

00:00 to the of my father, who discuss-- will the background of my father in medicine as he studied in Europe and stories that took place with the Rebbe that he was to experience over the years. My father studied in various universities in Vilna, in Strasbourg, and at the age of twenty-five, he already had a doctorate in medicine. And he was also doing research in new topics in medicine. One field was endocrination, and he wrote his findings, and he was also in touch with a top neurologist who was one of the top in the century, Professor Harvard Cushing in Yale University in Connecticut, and there are letters of correspondence between them. After the war, he received his license to be practice in the United States. When he met various doctors who he became acquainted with in New York, one of them writes in a letter that he has an original mind to come up with new discoveries after researching in different aspects of medicine. Chassidim that knew him well mentioned to me that they... that he could have continued in his life with research in the medical field, but because of his good heart and devotion, he chose to practice as a doctor. My father once sent someone of Anash to visit a certain doctor in Manhattan. The doctors in Manhattan held very highly of my father as a senior doctor, respected him very much, and at times also consulted with him. When my father sent once a certain patient to an expert in that field, this

02:28 expert was amazed, figuring that my father only saw selected patients. And here, in this case that he saw in front of him, saw my father was dealing with all kinds of different patients, different situations. And this amazed that professor, that that my father is attending to all despite his greatness, uh, that he could have been a professor in a specific field. Now we'll discuss some short stories that took place in the Rebbe and my father. There's one time that the Rebbe came out of his room with a telegram in his hand. In the telegram, it was relayed that there was a person that was sick with a certain illness, and the Rebbe asked my father if there is a solution, if there is something in the medical field that can help this person. Father looked at the telegram and said as far as he knows, there was nothing new yet in the medical field for this problem. In general, my father was very on top of the new developments in the medical world, constantly read and was updated. The Rebbe went back to his room, and then a while later, the Rebbe came out again. My father understood that the Rebbe wanted a doctor should , should pass the verdict that there is something in the medical field. And my father answered, "Yes." The Rebbe smiled and returned back to his room. I remember once waiting outside of Seven Seventy. Everybody was waiting for the Rebbe to go out of his room, to go home,

04:24 and it took longer than usual. And after a while, the Rebbe came out, and then I also met my father. My father told me the Rebbe just called him in and, uh, showed him a letter from someone that has a, uh, health issue and asked my father if he could look into it, if there's any solution, anything new in the medical field. In general, letters that my father wrote to the Rebbe about certain issues received quick responses from the Rebbe. It was on his letterhead and, uh, uh, the address on the envelope, the return address was my father's address, and that received priority attention by the Rebbe. Another story was once at a Shabbos Nitzavim uh, late nineteen sixty-four. The Rebbe then spoke in the middle of the Chassid Rabbi Binyamin Gorodetsky did not feel well. When the Rebbe concluded the Rav Shmuel, the father-in-law of Rabbi Gorodetsky, approached the Rebbe and told the Rebbe about it. The Rebbe asked my father to check him out, Rabbi Gorodetsky, and he checked him out and said everything is all right. The Rebbe then said, "He is a doctor, and if he says it is nothing, it is truly nothing." It was once in the middle of a maimer. The Rebbe was delivering a maimer podah v'shalom tov shimchov. That's late nineteen fifty-nine. He was a yitas kist of abringen, and one of the Hasidim fainted. The Rebbe stopped middle of the maimer, and here on the audio, the Rebbe calls my father. My father came, and

06:27 he checked out the person, checking his pulse. And we hear the Rebbe saying, "Yoev le yode," gave him his hand, which this is based on the Gemara in Brachos, that the Gemara says in regards to two sages that met. One visited the other who was ill, and he asked him, "Do you want the pain?" He says, "I don't want the pain. I don't want the reward for the pain." So he says, "Give me your hand." He gave him his hand, and he became well. This is what the Rebbe was referring to, yoev le yode, when my father, uh, had checked the pulse of this person. The family Rebbasken, Rabbi Avraham Arnen, and Rabbi Gavriel Rebbasken, zol zain gezunt, told me a story in regards to their father, Rav Getzel, alav ha-shalom. That it was many years after a certain surgery that Rav Getzel Rebbasken experienced. The Rebbe told him, "Daloi dokteidim." Finishing with dokteidim. No more doctors. Once, before traveling to Gan Yisro, Camp Gan Yisro, where Rav Getzel worked with his wife. Rav Getzel was the mashgiach, his wife was the cook, and her mechutenister, Mrs. Doberaskin, alav ha-shalom, was the- also a cook. And Rav Getzel would be there through the summer. So he asked the Rebbe if he can visit my father just to check himself out before the summer. On the other hand, the Rebbe told him, "No more doctors." So he asked the Rebbe what should he do. So the Rebbe said, "You should visit him with the condition that

08:12 you will only speak with him in inyonim of learning, inyonim of Torah, but not about medicine."