{"id":3244,"date":"2015-11-04T16:13:28","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T21:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=3244"},"modified":"2015-11-04T16:13:28","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T21:13:28","slug":"another-kind-of-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/another-kind-of-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Kind of Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pr<\/a>When cancer knocks on the door, it comes as a package deal bringing with it a sharp role switch from giver to receiver, from helping to being helped, from supporter to object of support.
\nIt isn\u2019t an easy switch. Slowly but surely, we are learning the ropes and beginning to understand that just as giving is a great privilege \u2013 so too receiving is a privilege that enables the abundance of good in the world to reach its destination.
\nFor now \u2013 temporarily, please G-d \u2013 we are enjoying this abundance, this time on the receiving end.
\nWe\u2019re used to battles. My husband, is a reservist, a regiment commander. Out on the field he is known as Lieutenant Colonel Yigal Spielman. In the second Lebanon War and in Operation Protective Edge, it was the elite battalion of Golani soldiers that he led. Back at home, he is known simply as Abba, the one we all leaned on. On the field, he had a battalion to fight with him. Here at home, he also has a battalion: myself, our eight kids and Ezer Mizion.
\nFrom the beginning, we decided not to keep the cancer a secret from the kids and keep to routine as normal as much as possible. Our little girl, Rachel, asked one evening at the supper table: \u2018Abba, tell me, this doesn\u2019t have anything to do with dying, right?\u2019 We answered her as best as we could, being honest yet assuring.
\nIt\u2019s a quiet, calm morning. Yigal sits on the couch in the living room. Our young son comes over to him with a whoop, a chessboard in his hand. He sits on the arm of the couch and consults with his father about the next move. Yigal\u2019s eyes beam with pleasure and pride. And then, in the midst of all the joy and light, he holds his stomach and tries to not let anyone notice the pain he is in.
\nOn a normal day, when not on reserve duty, Yigal wakes up at four-thirty in the morning, learns Gemara, prays, and then at six in the morning, goes to work at Kibbutz Ein Hanatziv.
\nWith the support of our battalion, we\u2019re managing. Our kids are great and Ezer Mizion offers everything we can think of and plenty that we didn\u2019t. Psychological support. A home away from home for the kids to engage in such fun activities as playing with a rabbit or joining a band. They call is Music Therapy and Animal Therapy. Our kids call it fun. Someone brings us meals at home and for me when I\u2019m staying with Yigal at the hospital. Another angelic someone drives Yigal in for treatments and still another helps me with the millions of things I need to do in raising a family like homework with the kids, buying them school supplies etc etc etc. And then there are the programs purely to lift our spirits like birthday parties, trips and retreats.
\nThis afternoon, with brimming heart (no, not brimming \u2013 overflowing!), we returned home from Ezer Mizion\u2019s retreat for cancer patients and their families.
\nAt the retreat, we met another 100 families who are more or less going through the same thing we are. Sick children, sick mothers or fathers. The families are different but so similar. Looking at the people around us, I see that everyone is doing his trek with strength, courage, and nobility and simply doing what has become a lot more complex: living!
\nJoining this journey with their generous spirit, joyful and spreading cheer, are the people at Ezer Mizion. United together, all they want is to make us feel good.
\nDoing good is contagious. It echoes. It pulls you along, it smiles. Almost automatically, the good sticks to you and expands your heart and soul.
\nWhat strength there is in 150 people who come from all corners of the country, each one with his jeep, and take hundreds of people jeeping! Anyone who hasn\u2019t seen this sight will find it hard to believe. And dozens of people from all over the country who came on a purely volunteer basis on the hottest day of the year to give hundreds of children a ride on parachute gliders over the sea.
\nThere is Kobi Peretz, the tzaddik whom I got to know for the first time and was astounded by his greatness and his huge, warm, and loving heart that touches every one of the people sitting there. And Moshe Lahav who got things happy and lively, and Dudu Aharon who was so moving, and more and more performers and dozens of volunteers who ran about back and forth smiling and goodhearted, eager to do everything we asked for. Together we sang, laughed, were suffused with joy, and were moved to tears.
\nThese days, when the feeling is that you don\u2019t hear the voice of love enough, those days reminded me again that this is the way we Jews are: loving, mutually responsible, brothers.
\nNechama Spielman, wife of Lieutenant Colonel Yigal Spielman
\nFor further info: www.ezermizino.org<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When cancer knocks on the door, it comes as a package deal bringing with it a sharp role switch from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4,503,501,502],"class_list":["post-3244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer-support-division","tag-cancer","tag-golani","tag-lieutenant-colonel-yigal-spielman","tag-nechama-spielman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3244","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=3244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3245,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3244\/revisions\/3245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}