Update on the Arushes

BH

I had the pleasure of speaking tonight again with Daniela Arush. Overall, the news is good. Rabbi Arush shlita, who was not feeling well last week, is BH much better – he started feeling better on Lag B’Omer. Nachman, the oldest child, who just a little while ago was still in a wheelchair, is doing much better and no longer needs regular monitoring. Miriam is also doing much better, although they are still monitoring her internal injuries which have not healed fully. But the doctors are very optimistic and right now are not considering any interventions. Both kids returned to school after Pesach, giving Daniela a little time to breathe as well.

The news from baby Odelle’s ultrasound is also encouraging. She does indeed have a scar on her skull – the force of the collision was strong enough that even the amniotic fluid could not protect her head from ramming into her mother’s pelvis in utero. The good news is that the doctors believe that Baruch Hashem, she does not have any brain damage or other adverse effects, just a scar. She will continue to have the scar monitored.

The hardest news is Rav Shimon Machluf ben Miriam Varda – Daniela’s husband, and Rabbi Arush’s son. Daniela said that he is the only one who still needs prayers – but he still needs them. He is still extremely weak, and now has a motorized wheelchair to get around. If you only knew him before the accident, the one who practically built the new Yeshiva himself, who knows how to weld, electrical stuff, can install air conditioners in a flash and more, this shadow of himself is very hard to get used to. Please continue to daven for him to have a full recovery!

You can continue to get emuna and Arush family updates at my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/emunagal1.  

Amazing news, outright miracles

I have beyond incredible news – Reb Shimon Arush and his family – all four of them – left the hospital today!!! Outright miracles!!!

That being said, it is not easy. The family still needs treatments (I don’t know details) and physical support, especially since neither parent is strong and healthy enough to deal with 2 healthy kids, let alone 2 sick kids just out of the hospital. Additionally, emotionally, now the reality of little Faige Chana z”l is really hitting them – I spoke today with Daniela, and my husband with Reb Shimon, and both of us felt the same thing after getting off the phone – they both sounded really weak, like we could hardly hear them. Hardly themselves. But Reb Shimon was really strong with my husband: “Rak Todah. Rak Todah” – “Only thank you.”

I hear Harav in my head over and over again: thank you Hashem that the rest of the family is alive. That in the merit of Faige Chana z”l who was taken as a korban for all of Klal Yisrael, they are alive to live through the suffering in the first place. Alive. And out of the hospital. To not deny the good done for us, in our pain over the loss.

Harav Arush was very strong in his shiur tonight – one way or another, a person must speak to Hashem. If you are not at the level of emuna to say thank you for everything, OK. So go to Hashem and say “It hurts me. It is hard for me. I don’t understand. Give me emuna. Give me the emuna to say thank you.” But go to Hashem!!! And to focus on your will – maybe you can't do something. But go to Hashem and say “I WANT to do this.” The only true free choice (bechira) that we have is our will, our good desires. The success (or failure) is only up to Hashem, but we can choose what we want, what we yearn for.

Holy yearning is the highest thing. In a class for Rebbe Nachman’s yahrtzeit a few years ago, Rabbi Arush spoke about the tremendous importance of good will and yearning for holiness, for emuna, for Hashem. The yearning creates angels which run around the world. A person can run into that angel, and suddenly, they wake up and desire what you yearned for! Even the biggest rasha (evil person), if he runs into that good will you created, and he has just a single thought of teshuva – just a thought! (hirhur) of doing teshuva – all his sins are erased, and now he can truly do teshuva because he doesn’t have harsh judgments on him. In the next world, you get the merit of this person doing teshuva, and you’re like – I don’t know him! Yes, but he did teshuva because of your desire!!!

So don’t get frustrated if you want to do something, and it’s not your level. You want to thank Hashem and not deny the good He did in healing Reb Shimon’s family, but you just can't get over the pain of losing Faige Chana z”l. It’s OK. Ask Hashem to give you that level, to give you complete emuna, to help you not kick the suffering and deny the good. Want to be at that level, and do your very best to thank Hashem. So you wanted to do that mitzvah, and you could not. Don’t let the Evil Inclination get you down – your holy will, and prayers to fulfill that mitzvah in the future are so precious. More precious, in fact, than even doing that mitzvah without will. In whatever you do or don’t accomplish, the main thing is the will!

Update on Arush Family

I am overjoyed to report that all are significantly on the mend! My husband was finally able to go tonight, and I was able to reach another friend who visited him at the end of the last week. Reb Shimon Arush is doing much, much better and the hospital is even getting ready to release him!!! Mamash complete miracles. Right now the word is that his wife is going to be kept in Shimirat Herayon (pregnancy hospital bedrest) until she delivers, and I hear that the children are doing much better, but I don’t have details about their release. Our friend believes that they are indeed expected to make a complete recovery, but I don’t have confirmation about that. We were hoping to get some details from Reb Shimon, but he needed to rest and obviously my husband was not going to press him.

I will continue to send updates as I have them.

Additionally, the following was printed in the Chut shel Chessed weekly Torah portion newsletter for this past Shabbos, Beshalach:

A person is required to bless on the bad just as he blesses on the good“Happy is the man that Hashem gives him suffering.” Happy are we that Hashem has chosen us to bring a pure, clean korban (offering) on the Altar of atonement, thank you Hashem that we merited almost two years of the free gift of the presence of the pleasant child Faige Chana z”l (her memory should be a blessing).

We have no choice other than to accept the suffering with love and joy, to thank Hashem that He left the other members of the family alive, and that He has graced us with the daat (holy knowledge) of gratitude and emuna.

Now we need to wake up Am Yisrael to have even more strength to know and believe with complete emuna that from the mouth on high evil does not leave (ie Hashem does not do anything evil), and we must not kick the direction of Hashem Blessed be He, our merciful Father, our perfect Rock – and certainly then we will see eye to eye (ie with our own eyes) how everything is only good for us and all of Am Yisrael, and through us accepting the suffering with love we will turn over the trait of judgment to the trait of mercy and bring redemption and salvation to the whole world.

Similarly when we see harsh judgments and the trait of judgment is taking the lives of gentle children who are free of sin, we must wake up and strengthen ourselves in all aspects of (mitzvot) between man and fellow man, and first and foremost, to distance ourselves from all discord and arguments and baseless hatred, only to honor one to the other and to speak kindly and with honor to every person, and in this merit Hashem will say to stop the slaughter, and send a complete healing to all the sick of Am Yisrael and in particular to those injured in the car crash: Shimon Machluf ben Miriam Varda, Daniela bat Zahava Chaya, Nachman ben Daniela and Miriam bat Daniela.