Amidah: Refaeinu 3/4/10 Part Two
Transcribed and prepared by Chava Janovsky:
- This is First time when a person understands that this is for others and not for me
- Therefore the Gemorrah says that if I reach a point where I say “I am not sick” then I am not davening; Because if there is someone else who is ill the Gemorrah says – “we have to make ourselves sick over the fact that someone else is sick” – it has to hurt us
- Story – when Uncle Noach was going for radiation treatment, he was sitting next to another Rosh Yeshiva (and he couldn’t even sit – had bed sore all over, couldn’t breath, terrible pain, wasn’t sleeping anymore); the he sees them roll out an elder yid from radiation. Rav Noach uncle jumps up and goes to the yid and starts talking to him – “what happened, what are you doing?”, he talks to him, makes him laugh, tells him how he is going to daven for him- all of the old Uncle Noach technique. So he makes the guy happy, et. Then he sits down. He is now in100X more pain than before then he turns to the other Rosh Yeshiva and says “that’s it – I am not going to sleep tonight – how can I sleep tonight when see that guy suffering like that?” the Rosh Yeshiva turns to him and says ‘I think you are an idiot – you are already sick and suffering and can barely move and you jump up and make make yourself sicker because of someone else?’, Uncle Noach says ‘if you can see someone who is sick and just say Oh vey and then start talking about the super bowl you are just one step away from being a murderer”
- Because if really hurts you to see someone else in pain, how can you just turn away and forget about it? You can’t do it
- It is very hard for us – in New York and New York area we see beggars , people suffering, and it breaks your heart when see it hopefully but want to go on with life; There is a whole skill of tzedeka and to learning the degrees of empathy. While davening refaiainu, it has to be that as long as know there are people are you sick can’t just say “send a refua to this one and that one” – There has to be a degree of empathy