[Avodah] "The Great Miracle of the Volcano Shutdown "

[Yosef Gavriel Bechhofer]

Below is a story and a response. The response is not mine, but it is
so good I thought it worth sharing.


The Great Miracle of the Volcano Shutdown 
Sunday, April 25, 2010
http://dreamingofmoshiach.blogspot.com/2010/04/great-miracle-of-volcano-shutdown.html

A universal crisis, millions of people stranded, billions of dollars
lost, and one volcanic eruption in Iceland causes chaos across the
European continent. Within all this tumult, one Jew merits a smile from
the Creator of the World, as if G-d was whispering to him - My son, the
whole world was not created except for you כל העולם לא נברא אלא בשבילי.

The story begins with a young Yeshiva student, an 18 year old Yerushalmi,
who was mortally ill with fulminate hepatic failure. With little
hope of receiving a liver transplant in Israel, Rav Firer sought to
send the boy on an emergency flight to Brussels, the world center of
liver transplants. The only problem however, is that Brussels under no
circumstances transplants non-EU patients, in order to save the scanty
supply of livers for Europeans. Nevertheless, it was decided to send
him to Brussels despite this knowledge.

The young student had no choice but to include his name on the long
waiting list for a liver transplant. In the meantime, he tried to
maintain his learning despite the illness, consciously aware that it
would takes weeks, months, and even years till he will be able to be
given a new liver. Many patients were on the waiting list, and his name
was somewhere on the bottom... And when his turn would finally arrive,
it had to completely match his blood type and other medical criteria. If
not a perfect match, he'd need to continue waiting ... for a miracle.

However, רבות מחשבות בלב איש ועצת ה' היא תקום Many thoughts in a
man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of H-Shem shall stand. H-Shem
had a different plan for this young Yeshiva student and H-Shem's loyal
servants produced avalanches of hot ash, rock and gas, causing Europe to
completely shut down its skies into a no-fly zone. It was during this
time that a young Yerushalmi was sitting in the yeshiva learning Torah
in the capital of Belgium.

During the course of the shut-down airspace above Europe, a person died
in the hospital in the capital of Belgium, a person who had agreed to
donate his liver to anyone that might need it. Astonishingly, a liver
that was perfectly parametric for our young Yeshiva student.

Health authorities in Belgium began searching the liver transplant
waiting list, but `unfortunately' not even one patient was able to
fly into Belgium for the healthy liver due to the volcanic eruption.
As they advanced further on the waiting list, they reached the young
Yeshiva student, but it was not offered to him due to his lack of
citizenship. As the clock closed in on the deadline for time within
which the liver would still be viable, however, no one else was able
to arrive in Belgium for the transplant except this young Yerushalmi.
With clear Divine Intervention, this budding talmid chacham received
the liver and is now recovering from surgery.

The enormity of this miracle was even greater after the successful
transplant. The doctors said that the young student's liver was very
deteriorated and diseased, and it was a matter of days before it would
have stopped functioning completely. The doctors unanimously believe
that if he had had to continue waiting for a transplant, he would not
have survived.

Who can understand the Ways of HKB"H?


My response:

I have a real problem with these stories in general, and I guess this
case really underscores why. Just imagine the other stories that are not
being circulated on the internet. Young mother/child/groom/ whoever on
waiting list, desperate for transplant, the right liver finally available
and s/he finally on top of the list - but could not fly to Belgium due
to the volcano and, r"l, passed away. I don't know what happened to whom
regarding this liver, but neither do those circulating this story know
whose heart could be breaking as they read it. Hashem's ways are indeed
mysterious and above our logical comprehension systems. But let's not
pretend that the hashgacha always works out for the apparent good of
everyone affected.

I happen to think we in our generation, and especially from an
educational standpoint our young people, are more in need of examples
of tziduk hadin and moving forward in life despite disappointment,
loss and suffering, than we are in need of further gushes of chicken
soup for our already entitlement-ridden souls. Because this genre has
become so ubiquitous, and we are encouraging people to identify (as if
they could!) `hashgacha pratis' in their lives, I fear we are weakening
rather than strengthening the kind of emuna needed to make it through the
real lives most of us lead, the ones in which people die, illness hurts,
and hopes are dashed, at least sometimes. I find these kinds of stories
dangerous, not only because they promote magical thinking and reinforce
theological beliefs of dubious basis in authoritative Jewish sources,
but because they reinforce some sort of fantasy that we can ignore
the gemara about kesheim shemevarchin al hatov etc. When young people
raised on this intellectual diet of gruel actually encounter challenges
in life, will they have the keilim, and the examples, to integrate them
into their mindset and avodas Hashem? Will they conclude, consciously
or unconsciously, that they are unworthy because miracles didn't happen
for them? Will they feel cheated out of the hashgacha protis they have
been guaranteed and end up angry at their religion r"l?

I don't know, I just feel sometimes we in the frum community live
in a haze of wishful thinking we have allowed and sometimes even
encouraged. I don't mean to be a downer but to say, let's recognize
and fix our problems rather than distracting ourselves from them. For
every heartwarming story circulated I'd like to see at least one story
that calls us to action, and I mean action to take responsibility for
our dysfunctionalities. If only the energy put into the campaign to
save Shalom Rubashkin from being overly punished for his crimes could
be equally put into a campaign to rid ourselves of corruption and fraud
and teach the importance of transparency, integrity, and accountability.
I am seriously considering contacting the guy who started the Chofetz
Chaim Heritage Foundation and encouraging him to start a new prong of
the movement aimed towards Emes and Yashrus.