Bring it On! | Rabbi Simcha Lefkowitz

is a day that I'll always remember. The day started as any other day. 5:30 in the morning, going to Shul. During davening, I felt weak and I had a tingling on my left side. I thought that it was heart-related and I drove myself to Saint Francis Hospital. My heart was fine, but an X-ray showed a mass in my chest that was later diagnosed as Hodgkin's lymphoma. The weakness in my left side eventually spread, and within 24 hours, I was totally paralyzed, lying in bed, not able to lift a single finger, hand, nothing. I could see, I could speak, I could breathe and I could think. Slowly, things began to reverse itself, until I was left partially compromised. After many weeks in the hospital, I was finally released on a Thursday and Friday night, I was back in Shul. Shabbos morning, I gave my Drasha from my wheelchair, and I continued on in my Rabbanus for the next 22 years, until I moved to Lakewood, a year ago. At that time, the first year, I had Hodgkin's lymphoma, I had chemo, radiation, I had thyroid cancer, I had surgery for that, I had embolisms. I was in and out of the hospital multiple times. I didn't want to get depressed. I didn't want to feel sorry for myself. I needed something to keep my mood up and I came up with a philosophy and I said, I'm not going to allow myself to get depressed. I said, This illness is trying to break me. And I said to the illness, Bring it on. You can't do it. No matter what happens, I'm not going to be broken. I'm stronger than my illness. Bring it on. Some people thought it was extreme, maybe a little bit arrogant, but I knew that an extreme circumstance needs extreme measures. And it's now, 23 years later. Bring it On has helped me to maintain myself as a productive person, a Rav of a Shul, being able to have a business, run a not-for-profit Chesed organization in Lakewood and in Woodmere, and had I not had that philosophy, I could not have accomplished anything like that. I found a source in Maseches Smachos, from none other than Rabbi Akiva. And Rabbi Akiva says, There are four types of situations. There's a situation where a person is challenged and he’s silent. There's a situation when a person is challenged and he kicks and fights. There's a situation where a person is challenged and they daven and they beseech HaKadosh Baruch Hu. When HaKadosh Baruch Hu challenged Dovid HaMelech, Dovid HaMelech said: הלקני, hit me, which to me translates into Bring it On. Bring it On means not to throw it away, not to push it away, to take your challenges, hold on to them, and make it work for you and become a better person. Today, we live in a world that we're constantly challenged with our Ruchniyus, our Emunah and Bitachon, from so many different ways, in so many different places. Whatever the challenge is, physical, mental, spiritual, you can go ahead, you can grab on to it, you can make it yours, you can control it, and you can become a better person. It worked for me, and I know that it can work for you, too. BIO. Bring it On.