1507 (5787-08) 15 Cheshvan 5787

"The Rebbe and the Professor"

Rabbi Sholom-Dovber Schneersohn (the Rebbe Rashab) told the student in his yeshiva to travel to Charkov to the famous doctor there, emphasizing that he should inform Professor Pabrikant that the Rebbe himself had sent him.

Why this week? This Shabbat, the 20th of the Jewish month of Mar-Cheshvan, is the anniversary of the birth of the Rebbe Rashab in 1860.

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The Rebbe and the Professsor

Reb Mendel related a story that he heard in his childhood directly from the one to whom it happened, when the man himself told it publicly at his brother's wedding.

Rabbi Shmuel Segalowitz, when he was a youth, was one of the students in the Tomchei Tamimim Yeshiva in Lubavitch in the early 1900's . At one point, he became very ill and suffered from severe, persistent headaches. The local doctors were unable to determine the cause of the pain or offer any effective treatment, so young Shmuel traveled to Minsk to be examined by a renowned professor.

The professor, and his son who was also a doctor, examined him thoroughly. Both reached the same alarming diagnosis. A tumor was growing inside Shmuel's head. They said that if he wanted to live, he would have to undergo urgent surgery to remove it.

Of course, a chasid does not schedule an operation without first asking the Rebbe. So Reb Shmuel traveled to Lubavitch and had a yechidus [face-face private meeting] with the Rebbe Rashab in which he described the doctors' diagnosis in detail and asked if he should proceed with the surgery.

The Rebbe placed his hand on Reb Shmuel's head and said that in his opinion there was no need for an operation. He instructed him instead to cook flax in water and apply a flax-water compress to his head.

Then the Rebbe told him to travel to Charkov, accompanied by his father, to be examined by Professor Fabrikant, emphasizing that he should inform the professor that the Rebbe himself had sent him.

Dr. Fabrikant was widely known and highly sought after. Securing an appointment could take a very long time, as patients flocked to him from all over. However, Reb Shmuel's mother's sister lived in the city and had influential connections. With considerable effort and expense, she managed to arrange an examination in a short time.

Shmuel and his father entered the examination room together. After a careful evaluation, the professor concluded that based on all medical findings, immediate surgery was necessary.

Reb Shmuel responded, "That is what the other doctors said as well. But the Rebbe ruled out surgery and sent me to hear your opinion."

When the professor heard this, he asked them to wait. He went into an inner room and began reviewing medical texts.

After a considerable time, he returned, visibly moved. "I reviewed many medical books," he said, "and initially found nothing conclusive. Then I came across a work dealing with medical jurisprudence. It explains that while these symptoms typically indicate a tumor requiring emergency surgery, there is an exceedingly rare condition, perhaps one case in ten thousand, in which similar symptoms are caused by a different type of growth in the brain. In such cases, surgery is not only unnecessary; it can result in the patient's death.

"That, by the way, is why the case appears in a book of medical jurisprudence; to clarify that if a patient dies during such a procedure, the physician cannot be held responsible, since the condition is extraordinarily rare."

The professor paused and then continued:

"Since the Rebbe sent you to me and you emphasized that he opposes surgery, I assume that you are that rare case. My revised diagnosis is that you do not require surgery at all. Instead, you should travel to a place with therapeutic mineral springs and bathe there repeatedly. That will be your cure."

Filled with joy and relief, Reb Shmuel left the professor's office with absolute certainty that the Rebbe's advice had saved his life.

They checked into the matter and discovered a therapeutic spring next to the village of Ponevezh that matched the professor's recommendation. Shmuel traveled there and underwent the prescribed treatments. After a time, he recovered completely, just as the Rebbe had said. No surgery was necessary.

"I saw on my own body," Rabbi Segalowitz later declared, "that the Rebbe's advice is always perfect. The Rebbe saved my life."

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Source: Modified and supplemented by Yerachmiel Tilles from the book, "The Mashpia, Rav Mendel Futerfas".

Why this Week? This Shabbat, the 20th of the Jewish month of Mar-Cheshvan, is the anniversary of the birth of the Rebbe Rashab in 1860.

Biographical note:
Rabbi Sholom-Dovber Schneersohn [20 Cheshvan 5621 - 2 Nissan 5680 (Oct. 1860 - April 1920)], known as the Rebbe Rashab, was the fifth Rebbe of the Lubavitcher dynasty. He is the author of hundreds of major tracts in the exposition of Chasidic thought. In 1915, after 102 years of Chabad rebbes living in Lubavitch, he transferred the center of the movement to Rostov-on-the-Don.

Footnotes:
1]The yeshiva was founded in 1897. It was moved from Lubavitch to Kremenchuk in 1918, due to the shifting realities of the war and the Russian Revolution. [chabad.org]
2]Dr. Moses ("Moisei") Fabrikant (1864-1951) was an outstanding surgeon and one of the fathers of plastic surgery in Ukraine. [from ukrainianjewishencounter.org/]

Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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