Where Your Light Will Make a Difference - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

so while this past Shabbat was not easy or Pleasant um there is something healthy healthy about being in the hospital as funny as that sounds I know that sounds funny but the reason is from the same family of ideas that we see in mishley and Proverbs where King Solomon says you know it's better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasted for that is the end of all men and the living will lay it into his heart so that's true it's important to experience a house of warning it's important from time to time to go to uh to a cemetery you know puts things into perspective but uh but a hospital is different you know there's uh the cemetery it's a little bit game over you know whereas in the hospital there's so much to be done there I don't know of a building that has greater dormant spiritual potential contained within it than a hospital I mean let's just start with the nurses you know a perfect example I've come to really deeply appreciate and love these nurses they're the unsung heroes and I don't think that there's a profession with more opportunity opportunity for light you know there are some nurses where it felt like there was someone detached and just doing their jobs doing them well but doing their jobs um but the vast majority of them had so much compassion and empathy and goodness and they're dealing with people at their weakest and most vulnerable moments people that are filled with fear and pain and loneliness and uh you know and they take them to the bathrooms and they wipe them and they change their diapers and they spoon feed them you know I even understand the ones that can perhaps put up walls and calluses around their hearts I mean to put in so much and develop relationships and Kindle friendships just to have person after person die on you I can understand putting up walls but it's far as I can see the vast majority of these Sweet Holy nurses are not putting up walls they're always there with a smile and a good word even if they're being screened at by the very person they're so lovingly tending to they're just very inspiring people I'm telling you I came away from the Shabbat um with a newly committed resolve to making hospital visits a part of my family crescent I want you know Shane and I are reading this book you know there's the seven uh habits of highly effective people it's called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective families and you sort of put in your own values that you want to proactively and thoughtfully put in to your family's schedule and and uh and Shannon and I spoke about this we want to make this a weekly family activity at least maybe when the kids get a little bit older Sheila's only 11 months because really you know at least for me there's there's no excuse not to you don't even have to know what you're doing you don't need to take a medical clown course you see I have I think often we have this tendency to think that if there's something really important that needs to be done that someone is on it you know there's there's a non-profit out there doing things they're all sorts of volunteers am I really needed and the answer is yes yes there are so many people in these hospitals that are totally alone or not even totally alone but they're families simply can't afford to be with them always at all times 24 7 around the clock and so they have to spend hours on end confined to the hospital bed trapped in the loneliness of their own minds I'm telling you you don't need to put on a red nose and you don't need to have a joke in your back pockets all these people need is someone holding their hand and and lovingly maybe caressing their hand patting their arm rubbing their shoulder loving words encouraging words a little song you know the human touched so many of them are so thirsty for something it's so little it's really heartbreaking you know in the um in the bed next to my father there's this elderly man and he's been there for months and his loving doting family I've met all of them numerous times as they're taking different ships a shift they told me that he survived Auschwitz and he lies there in his bed spending hours on end just groaning and moaning and crying and weeping and I don't know if it's physical or spiritual or emotional or what's happening with him you know his family's with him when they can be but they have jobs and you know family just can't do it always so this week they left him on Shabbat evening and he started moaning and crying and it's again it's just going die die die die I was on the phone with Shayna she couldn't believe how loud it was die means enough enough he's just saying enough he can't take the pain anymore and I would have thought really that it would be driving my father crazy that this man is a foot and a half away from him keeping him awake at all hours when he's struggling to sleep at all but really no oh my father told me that you know his heart is breaking for this poor man and the suffering that he endures and I was grateful to hear my father say that because he's going through so much that to know that he has the strength in him to have compassion and think about others you know I think in some way it's a blessing to him and so my dad just lies there concerned for him and praying for his healing um so anyways in the middle of the night the whaling was getting so bad that I just went to him and held his hand and caressed his shoulder and to my surprise you know I thought it wouldn't make any difference but to my surprise really and he immediately stopped wailing and within a couple of minutes he fell asleep and that exchange happened a number of times throughout Shabbat and I remember thinking like really that's all I needed to do to bring comfort and peace to this holy sick elderly man in Jerusalem what a privilege I have to do this I need to do this more but anyways you know before devash and Sheila were born when I was uh more into clowning and I would I would usually go to the kids boards you know it's it's heartbreaking and it's difficult but that's it's a beautiful thing and it's a needed thing but really everybody does that if you go to the pediatric oncology Wars the Pediatric Wards everybody does that but now you know after my experience in the geriatric Ward please God bleen enter I really want to spend a good amount of time there please God when my father's release and much healthier I want to go there and hold the hands and and just sing to people and share a good word there's just so much suffering and darkness in these hospitals I don't know all of a sudden I'm like an evangelist for medical class I don't know how this happened but um but you know if you go to these hospitals if you're not careful to go in there with the right headspace and to approach it right with the right faith and the right trust it's enough to break you you know when when you just shift your perspective for a moment you can see though the great opportunity lying before you and there's a lot of ancient Jewish wisdoms but I just saw this cartoon that I saw and I wanted to share the cartoon with you rather than a verse from the stages it's it shows that like two on top like this little dragon on this Panda the world can be a dark place sometimes said tiny dragon whoever that is but where it's the darkest said big panda is where your light will make the most difference