{"id":41984,"date":"2015-07-23T07:38:37","date_gmt":"2015-07-23T12:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=41984"},"modified":"2015-07-27T09:37:16","modified_gmt":"2015-07-27T14:37:16","slug":"can-you-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/can-you-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Can You Help?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no disease in the world for which Hashem had not already created the cure.\u00a0The task is for us to find it!<\/em><\/p>\n

To everything there is a time and a season. So Koehlet teaches, so our lives make clear.\u00a0Study and prayer are among the great pleasures and joys of my life. But just as every aspect of\u00a0life must be in balance with every other aspect of the life God has given us, there are times when\u00a0we must not only pray and study but we must also act in the world.\u00a0This is such a time.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Meet Esther Herzfeld. She is a wonderful woman whom I first came to know when she\u00a0taught English at the Yeshiva University Girls High School where I served as Principal in the\u00a0mid 1980\u2019s. As a principal, I often came to know not only the students in my school but also\u00a0their parents. It was more rare for me to come to know the parents of my faculty. However, I\u00a0did meet Esther\u2019s mother, a Holocaust survivor. Like other survivors, she wanted nothing more\u00a0than her children know a better, purer existence than her own. She was a lovely woman, with a\u00a0beautiful smile and a sparkle in her eyes.<\/p>\n

Once, when I saw her, rather than show me the deference and respect I had come to\u00a0appreciate from the old time European Jews, she pulled me aside and whispered urgently in my\u00a0ear, \u201cEsther iz aza gutte; oib zie darf amol epes, helft ihr zu!\u201d<\/em> I nodded to her, understanding the\u00a0Yiddish well. \u201cEsther is a good person; if she ever needs anything, help her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, understanding what she said and why she said it are two different things.\u00a0Esther was fine. She was confident, creative and bright. A wonderful and highly-thought of\u00a0teacher. What could she possibly need from me?\u00a0Now, I know.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Since she was a young girl, Esther dreamed of a much better life than the life her mother\u00a0had experienced. She dreamed of a satisfying career, a loving husband and, of course, a family\u00a0of wonderful children whom she could love and raise in a caring, Jewish home. She never\u00a0imagined herself reaching out to friends and strangers, desperate not for herself but for her children.<\/p>\n

She kept her end of the \u201cbargain\u201d. She was a good and caring person. She met and\u00a0married a wonderful man. They established a good, Jewish home. They started a family. One\u00a0child. Then another. A third and then a fourth.<\/p>\n

Blessings upon blessings had been heaped upon her! To her credit, she was aware of her\u00a0blessings and was grateful for them. But there has come a time when she has felt the burdens of\u00a0life more than its blessings.<\/p>\n

Tziporah, now twenty-two years old, suddenly changed her gait at eleven years of age.\u00a0She began to fall, but not like a toddler falls, but as one whose body completely betrays her falls.\u00a0She was diagnosed with a type of muscular dystrophy called CMT.<\/p>\n

She is barely able to walk.<\/p>\n

A terrible blow! One that would cause any loving parent to toss and turn through the\u00a0night in emotional anguish. To have a child suffer is a terrible thing. But there was more pain to\u00a0come. Through some terrible genetic pathway, her other children<\/em> came to suffer from the same disease!<\/p>\n

Tzvi, now eighteen, hasn\u2019t been able to walk since just after his Bar Mitzvah. Racheli,\u00a0only fifteen, walks, but with great difficulty, for only short distances, and only holding on to her\u00a0parents\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n

Three children! Each suffering! It seemed that only their eldest, Rivka, had escaped the\u00a0disease. But then, a phone call came while she was on her gap year. \u201cMom! I\u2019m scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is it, Rivka? What\u2019s the matter?\u201d<\/p>\n

Through tears, Rivka managed to speak the words that she, too, had begun to fall.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Hearing Esther\u2019s story made me ask myself, \u201cWhat can I do to help?\u201d<\/p>\n

What can you<\/em> do?<\/p>\n

Are we not all called upon to help one another, to be gomlei chasadim? But what can I do?<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Many people now know of the challenges that Esther and her family face. There has\u00a0been a good amount of publicity, much of it the result of Esther\u2019s entering an annual contest\u00a0sponsored by the National Mobility Equipment Dealers Association. Although her family did\u00a0not win the contest, their entry caught the attention of prominent California philanthropist\u00a0Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz, founder and CEO of Brius Healthcare Service. He took it upon\u00a0himself to provide the family members with the van they had hoped to win in the contest.<\/p>\n

That gift has proven to be a real \u201cgame changer\u201d for the family. Even so, we need much more!<\/em><\/p>\n

In Esther\u2019s own words, \u201cWe are looking for a clinical trial, an experimental drug, or drug\u00a0therapy. We are hoping that stem cell research will provide a cure. We are running out of time,\u00a0though. Each child gets weaker every day, losing more muscle tone and the capability to\u00a0accomplish everyday tasks. We need a drug or treatment that can stave off further deterioration\u00a0and bring about muscle regeneration and function.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, We need a cure!<\/strong><\/p>\n

That there is a cure is beyond a doubt. God is the Borei refuos<\/em>. He has created and\u00a0continues to create the cure for each and every ailment bedeviling mankind, even the most rare.\u00a0There is a cure. The challenge is for us to find it.<\/p>\n

I am asking that each and every one of you \u2013 doctors, researchers, biomedical\u00a0professionals\u2026 everyone in the medical field and everyone else \u2013 does something that moves us\u00a0to finding that cure and healing this family! Use every tool at your disposal. Medical\u00a0laboratories. Libraries and research centers. Every kind of social media, from Facebook and\u00a0Twitter to Instant Messaging. Let\u2019s get the word out there!<\/p>\n

Esther and her husband, Arthur, daven for a cure every day. One doctor they\u2019d seen\u00a0predicted a cure for CMT in five years but that was over ten years ago! We must find a cure for\u00a0this terrible disease and give succor to this wonderful family that has been visited by such a\u00a0profound burden!<\/p>\n

There is a cure out there.<\/p>\n

Our task is to find it.<\/p>\n

Please. Please help. Get the word out! If you can help, or know someone who can,\u00a0please help! If there is anything you can do, please contact Esther directly at:\u00a0likespurple@gmail.com<\/a> or be in touch with me at: e1948s@aol.com<\/a> We eagerly await your responses with profound thanks.<\/p>\n

While the Herzfelds continue to search for a comprehensive diagnosis and cure for the disease that is afflicting the children, their medical bills continue to rise. Medical insurance covers just a fraction of the bills that they have incurred, and sometimes, unbelievably, they are denied coverage for bills as varied as health aide payments and various therapies, equipment and accommodations to make the children more comfortable and sager. Several funds have been established to help the Herzfelds.<\/p>\n

Donations can be made at this link<\/a>. Tax deductible checks may be made out to Bergen County\u2019s United Way with the words \u201cHerzfeld Family Fund\u201d inserted in the memo line and mailed to Bergen United Way, 6 Forest Avenue, Paramus, NJ 07652 or to Congregation Beth Aaaron, 950 Queen Anne Road, Teaneck, NJ 07666.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no disease in the world for which Hashem had not already created the cure.\u00a0The task is for us to find it! To everything there is a time and a season. So Koehlet teaches, so our lives make clear.\u00a0Study and prayer are among the great pleasures and joys of my life. But just as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nCan You Help? - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/can-you-help\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can You Help? - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is no disease in the world for which Hashem had not already created the cure.\u00a0The task is for us to find it! 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