{"id":2754,"date":"2014-11-03T12:39:10","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=2754"},"modified":"2014-11-03T12:39:10","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T17:39:10","slug":"interviews-at-the-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/interviews-at-the-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Interviews at the Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yated Ne\u2019eman \u2013 Yated Hashavua
\nSept. 19, 2014
\nBy: Y. Shalev
\n\u201cYOU ARE OUR ANGELS\u201d \u2013 A DAY OF SHARING THE BURDEN \u2013 WITH RABBI CHANANYA CHOLLAK AND THE EZER MIZION VOLUNTEERS IN THE TOUGHEST HOSPITAL WARDS
\n\u201cKo\u2019ach Ezer\u201d \u2013 All-Embracing Help
\nAt the entrance to the Oncology Ward, the world stops. A fight for life rages in every room, in every bed. And as in war, there are many forces involved: doctors and nurses, relatives and friends, social workers, medical clowns, and more. Each one and his job, each one and his part in the battle * But hovering over them all is the \u201cIron Dome\u201d of Ezer Mizion, there at the ready to intercept every challenge, remove every obstacle that appears on the way, and take care of all the auxiliary matters, so that the people fighting for their lives can focus on the battle, and with Hashem\u2019s help, get past it safely.
\nA hum of whispers accompanies Rabbi Chananya Chollak\u2019s entrance to the ward. Doctors and staff members alike, parents and children, all look up to him with reverent eyes. \"pr<\/a>This is the man who stands behind the two-word phrase, \u201cEzer Mizion,\u201d a phrase that personifies for them the light within the darkness, the warm, enveloping embrace in rocky, frightening times.
\nThose who recognize Rabbi Chollak quickly inform the others of the identity of the one who came in, and they too join in eying the man who stands behind all the good angels filling the ward around the clock, all in one, single goal: to help relieve the patients\u2019 burden.
\nBut Rabbi Chollak does not seem to register the looks of reverence. He came here to visit the sick, wish them a speedy recovery, and he does so with the full seriousness that befits someone who knows all too well what this battle is all about and who believes that relieving the patient\u2019s burden is literally a matter of saving life.
\nHashem Will Help!
\nHe dons covers on his shoes and a surgical mask on his mouth and nose and opens the door of the isolation room. A young couple sits there next to the crib of their baby son, who underwent a bone marrow transplant from a donor found for him in the Ezer Mizion Registry. Rabbi Chollak inquires of the details and the father tells him the type of illness, the treatment that was given and the doctors\u2019 prognosis. Medical terms, their difficult pronunciation merely hinting at the real difficulty of actually coping with them, roll easily off this young man\u2019s tongue. His friends are probably busy with terms from the world of weddings, or at most, the world of mortgages and projects going up for young couples. How is it that he is occupied with such terrifying terms?
\nTears come to the eyes uninvited, but the young mother is determined: \u201cWith Hashem\u2019s help, he will get better and this entire period will be like a huge wave that came and went, leaving us only with strengthened faith and a more developed relationship between us. But there is no doubt that a major part of our growth and strength is credited to Ezer Mizion. Without them, we would have fallen apart.\u201d\"pr<\/a>
\nIn the ward itself, Rabbi Chollak goes from bed to bed, taking a sincere interest in each and every patient, showering words of encouragement and hope, and giving a sick child a bag of treats. At the conclusion of each visit, he asks for the name of the patient and his mother, closes his eyes in intense concentration, and prays \u2013 for Sarah bat Shulamit, may she have a full recovery among all the Jewish ill, for Shlomo ben Limor, for Chaim Uri ben Dalia, and for each and every one of the children \u2013 l\u2019refuah shleimah b\u2019toch she\u2019ar cholei Yisrael.
\n\u201cHashem will help!\u201d he encourages a group of mothers who stepped out of the room so that the cleaning help could do their job. The caring in his eyes adds depth of meaning to the words so often superficially tossed out. \u201cYishtabach shemo la\u2019ad \u2013 May His Name be eternally praised!\u201d responds one mother, a somewhat unexpected expression, considering her external appearance. But she does not leave any doubts. \u201cYishtabach shemo la\u2019ad! That is my motto these days. We are strong! In this place, we see the Jewish nation that is all heart! So many organizations, so much help, so much caring! And it is all for the name of G-d and His children. There is no one like the Jewish people and none like their G-d. Yishtabach shemo la\u2019ad!\u201d she concludes, and you can tell that this is indeed the motto that helps her in the fight with her daughter\u2019s illness.
\nA suspicious glint is seen in the eye of a mother carrying her son in her hands. Rabbi Chollak inquires of the details, and soon enough, the teary glint is contagious. This little boy was already healthy, but the illness returned in full force. The doctors say there is nothing they can do \u2026 Again, he asks for the name of the child and his mother, his eyes close, and the prayer is uttered. \u201cHakadosh baruch Hu can do everything. Don\u2019t lose hope!\u201d he says quietly. \u201cWe never give up hope,\u201d the mother promises, holding the child close to her heart.
\nResolute Mission\"pr<\/a>
\nIn the next room sits an Ezer Mizion volunteer next to the bed of a seven-year-old girl. \u201cHow long will you be here with her?\u201d I ask. \u201cUntil another volunteer comes to relieve me\u2026\u201d she replies, and a slight spasm of her face hints to me not to go on and ask the obvious question: \u201cAnd where are the parents?\u201d Once outside the room, Yumi will tell me that the parents, wretched and impoverished, come to \u201cvisit\u201d their daughter from time to time, but the ones who are with her on a regular basis are the Ezer Mizion volunteers.
\nWe pass by a cart set up with refreshments for all those who come through the ward \u2013 a compact cafeteria, offering home-made cake and drinks. The \u201cEzer Mizion\u201d symbol on the cups leaves no room for doubt. Next to the cart sits a pleasant-countenanced volunteer, who pours and serves the drinks, asks \u201cHow much sugar,\u201d and wipes away a drop of milk that dripped on the cart, making sure everything is esthetic, dignified and respectful.
\nA sweet little girl rides a tricycle alongside her mother. Her bald head seems incongruous with the merry mischief dancing in her eyes. \u201cWhat\u2019s your name,\u201d Rabbi Chollak asks, bending all the way down to the colorful tricycle. \u201cTalia,\u201d the girl answers in a tinkling voice, happily accepting the bag of treats he offers her. \u201cI\u2019m going to eat it all up and nothing will be left for anyone else,\u201d she announces with amazing self-confidence. \u201cHow old are you, Talia?\u201d inquires Rabbi Chollak. \u201cThree,\u201d she replies. \u201cAnd when will you be four?\u201d he goes on, but she is already riding away, checking out the sweets in the bag, and the question remains hanging in the air. We bless Talia that she should indeed reach the age of four, hale and healthy, with the horrible disease behind her.
\nFrom every direction, people come over, shake Rabbi Chollak\u2019s hand in choked silence, exchange looks reserved for people of one family, even if not biologically related, and their eyes express the depth of the gratitude they concentrate into one immortal word: Thanks! Or at most, three words: Thanks for everything!\"pr<\/a>
\n\u201cYou are our angels,\u201d the phrase is heard again and again, and not as an empty clich\u00e9. On the surface, it seems as if everyone studied the same script, but when you hear the intonation and see the look that comes along with the words, and especially \u2013 when you hear of the cushion of warm, embracing help Ezer Mizion offers families of cancer patients, you understand the depth of meaning contained in the word \u201cangels\u201d appended automatically to Ezer Mizion volunteers: \u201cAngels\u201d are the agents of the Creator. G-d has many agents, and Ezer Mizion chose to be His agents in the Oncology Ward \u2013 counseling, guiding, supporting, and helping, in the hospital and at home, to parents and children, from the technical aspect and from the emotional-spiritual aspect. No wonder that they are seen as \u201cangels\u201d!
\nIn the virtual telephone book of every person here are the personal phone numbers of these angels, representatives of Ezer Mizion in the Oncology Ward of the hospital and in the organization\u2019s Cancer Patients\u2019 Support Division: Yumi, Zevi, Blumi, Ophira, and all the rest. Every time there is a problem, question, difficulty, or request, they do not hesitate to call. Experience has already taught them that if they want to do Ezer Mizion a favor, all they have to do is call and ask, and above all \u2013 to accept what the help they want so much to give them.
\nThe assistance is provided directly to the patients and their families, but also indirectly, via the ward staff. Here, a social worker comes over to Zevi and tells him about a problem she encountered with one of the children on the ward. You can tell by his expression how obvious it is to her that Zevi is the address for her problem and that is where the answers and the solution is to be found.
\nAnother social worker approaches Ophira and informs her about a \u201cnew\u201d family from Modi\u2019in Ilit who arrived at the ward. She, too, knows that in spite of her professional training and rich experience, she could never give this family everything that Ezer Mizion will give it: Comprehensive support in every necessary area, with maximal understanding of the special sensitivities that flow from their being a Torah-observant family.
\nThe cafeteria cart has not yet receded when another cart appears, led by a different volunteer, carrying trays with hot, fresh lunches cooked in the Ezer Mizion kitchens, to be given out to the people sitting beside the patients. It seems that nobody other than me is surprised by the sight. It happens here every day, and, as we know, routine dulls the sense of amazement.
\nAround the Clock, Day In Day Out
\n\"pr<\/a>Rivky T. hosts me in the isolation room where she is sitting with her three-year-old Down\u2019s Syndrome daughter, who has leukemia. Rivky\u2019s eyes are gleaming and she shares her experience with me openly. \u201cMy children love Tehilla dearly, and dealing with her illness is not easy for any of us. Ever since she was born, we learned that every therapy and every entitlement, every allotment and every co-payment, even for a few dozen shekels, involves filling out countless forms, sending faxes, getting confirmations, and recommendations, and proofs\u2026 And suddenly, here we were exposed to something new: Someone who wants to give to us. Perhaps \u2018wants\u2019 is not the right word, but rather: aspires and pleads and hopes that we will agree to accept\u2026 and all this without our having to fill out a single form! Without investigating us and asking \u2018Who are you, where are you from, how much do you earn, have you realized your employment potential, what newspaper do you read at home\u2026 without any bureaucracy and nitpicking, just with an amazing understanding of the needs of a family struggling with their child\u2019s illness.
\n\u201cEver since we are here, I feel as if I am getting one long hug from Ezer Mizion, which infuses me with the strength I need to get through this tough period and backs me up with full support on the home front so that the house will continue functioning as if everything was fine. We receive a lot of technical support, and the children get therapies meant to calm them, mentors who are ready to give them the moon, and more and more.\"pr<\/a>
\nNechama C. sits outside the treatment room. In the carriage at her side is her baby, brother of the five-year-old sick girl. \u201cI have been here on and off for three years already,\u201d she relates in the tone of someone who has already made peace with the tough facts of life. \u201cI think that everyone knows at least a part of what Ezer Mizion does for the patients and their families. For us, it came to particular expression in the time after I had the baby. They enveloped us all in everything you can imagine \u2013 and also what you can\u2019t.
\nYocheved sits alongside her two-year-old son\u2019s bed and says Tehillim (Psalms). \u201cYou\u2019re asking about Ezer Mizion?\u201d She asks in wonder. \u201cThey are our family. They are our angels. For the last eight months, they have been our address for everything you can think of. Thanks to them, my head is clear of everything that would preoccupy a Jewish mother. They know that a sick child needs parents who are available \u2013 physically and emotionally, and everything they do and offer us is geared towards this objective. It is inadequate to try and list the things they do for us, because the whole is far more than the sum of its parts. The biggest help does not boil down to a listing of the specific areas of assistance that they offer at no cost, but to the fact that they are available and accessible and understand the needs of patients and their families even better than we ourselves know and understand.
\n\u201cLet me tell you about the special clock we prepared for them \u2013 it is hanging in the ward \u2013 so you can understand a tiny bit of what I am talking about: On the clock face we wrote: \u2018Ezer Mizion around the clock.\u2019 Next to each of the digits on the clock, we wrote something connected to that number and connected to what Ezer Mizion does for us. For example, next to the number one, we wrote: \u2018Number one in chessed\u2019 Number three says, \u2018Three nights at the summer retreat a vacation that puts us back on our feet with attractions for parents, for each girl and boy and all in abundance, with nachat and joy\u2019; By the number five we wrote: \u2018Every Thursday, a devoted volunteer cleans the house for free, in good cheer. And behind the door sits a box full of treats to make our Shabbat table complete. Number nine speaks of a unique type of chessed: On the fast day of the Ninth of Av. It\u2019s the weary parents they are thinking of. So they take the little ones off the scene for a program of balloons and a trampoline\u2026 I\u2019m sure that even if there were a hundred hours on the clock, we would have been able to fill each hour with another detail and another piece of the tapestry of tremendous help they do for us.\u201d \"pr<\/a>
\nIn the middle of our conversation, Yocheved\u2019s cell phone rings. \u201cYou have a ride coming home,\u201d the indefatigable Transport Division secretary tells her.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t even request it!\u201d Yocheved says with amazement. \u201cI just told them that I need a volunteer to relieve me for two hours in the afternoon to sit with the child. But they understood on their own that if I need a volunteer \u2013 I also need a ride home. There you are \u2013 that, in short, is the whole story of this remarkable organization and the people in it: They infer what you need, they are one step ahead and figure out what we are lacking before we ourselves know.
\n\u201cWe can never thank them enough for all they do. All we can do is try to link on to their tremendous acts of chessed \u2013 by donating money and joining the ranks of volunteers the moment this story will be behind us.
\nMothers\u2019 Seismographs
\n\u201cThe Kupat Cholim refuses to reimburse me for the cost of the ambulance we took when we rushed the child to the hospital because he got a fever,\u201d A man grabs hold of Zev Freund in the hospital corridor, shoving a pile of forms in his hand. Zev takes them, as if it was self-understood. Who, if not he, will take care of the bureaucratic glitch that is disturbing the father and not enabling him to be fully available to his sick son?
\nOne of the doctors comes over to Yumi and exchanges a few whispered words with him. Yumi nods and the doctor continues on his way calmly, his face showing that he is assured that the matter will be taken care of.
\n\u201cWhat is your motto?\u201d I ask these unflagging people, who spend more time in the Oncology Ward than anywhere else.
\n\u201cLife here has taught us that the child is his parents\u2019 seismograph,\u201d Zev explains. \u201cThe sick child needs a hundred percent Ima, but his Ima has another few children and endless obligations. We are here to remove all those concerns from her shoulders. There are general concerns, like meals and housecleaning, that everyone needs, and there are the unique concerns of each family and every day. We take both kinds of needs on our shoulders so that the parents will be totally available to their sick child. When the child tells me with pure simplicity: \u201cToday Ima is happy,\u201d I know that baruch Hashem, we achieved our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the Cards Revealed\"pr<\/a>
\n\u201cDuring summer vacation, I prepared a card game for my children, and I urge everyone to adopt the idea,\u201d Rivky T. says. \u201cOn each of the cards, I wrote a different fact, and I placed the cards in a pile. The facts were, for example: Leukemia is a scary disease; I am embarrassed by Tehilla\u2019s baldness; It pays to have leukemia; The food we get for Shabbat is delicious; I prefer the food that Mommy cooks; I want Tehilla to come home; and so on. Every child, and also we, the parents, took a turn picking up a card and reading what it said. If he felt that the sentence on the card was correct for him, he explained why and took it for himself. If not, he put the card in another pile.
\n\u201cI was very touched to see that the cards the children identified with indicated that they were not experiencing difficult, black days, but rather saw many positive things that they had. I could have even been insulted by what the cards revealed \u2013 that the food I prepare cannot always compete with the food we get from Ezer Mizion, and the attractions I can offer my children do not even come close to what their mentors do for them. The same is true for the day camps and fun days that Ezer Mizion organizes for them. But don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m not offended. On the contrary \u2013 I am happy that this is what the cards revealed. I know that the fact that this period will be engraved in the memories of my children as an interesting, colorful time, though certainly challenging, is all to the credit of Ezer Mizion, which enveloped us in such an amazing all-embracing support system, and thanks to their vast experience, managed to preempt the difficulties by offering us every necessary assistance, even before we realized that we need it.\"pr<\/a><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yated Ne\u2019eman \u2013 Yated Hashavua Sept. 19, 2014 By: Y. Shalev \u201cYOU ARE OUR ANGELS\u201d \u2013 A DAY OF SHARING […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,95,8,1,98,250,97,166],"tags":[4,37,104],"class_list":["post-2754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ambulance-2","category-bone-marrow-registry","category-cancer-support-division","category-ezer-mizion","category-food-distribution","category-medical-referral","category-special-needs","category-volunteer-2","tag-cancer","tag-leukemia","tag-oncology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2755,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2754\/revisions\/2755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}