[Avodah] Knocking on Heaven's Door

[cantorwolberg at cox.net]

R' Micha wrote:
When one of us have the attitude, "We have reached the limits of
medicine; all we can do now is pray." Medicine and prayer are orthogonal
approaches to the same problem, and *intellectually* we all know we
need tefillah just as much when the doctor has a clear idea about how
to proceed.

So how do you explain a true non believer (or a less frum believer) who has a major
operation and never utters a prayer, never davens, who has a doctor with the same
mindset and the surgery is a major success? Then you have the most frum Yid with
the same surgery who FFB, davens 3 times a day, never experiences bittul Torah,
gives 20% tzedaka (I think you get the picture) and is 35 years old and dies on the
operating table. So what would the theological response to that be (other than it's
the will of God and we don't know). I know a traditional Jewish man (now 80+) who 
has 2 sons who are Y.U. musmachim. This man's mother came out of the shoah 
barely alive and while on the boat from Europe to America, she took off her shait'l
and threw it into the ocean (and the powerful symbolism is obvious). Is she to be
looked upon as a pariah? Her son (the 80+ man) tells the story to many people, 
many times, not at all in a judgmental way, but rather as one of the ways others 
dealt with such tragedy. I'm also aware that the opposite also occurred -- people
who weren't frum began ba'alei t'shuva. Who's to say why or judge these (or any
people).