A Touching Incident
I was once hospitalized and was severely limited in my movements. I needed physical help to perform various activities. At all times, I had someone at my side: a family member, a disciple, or my devoted secretary. But one time, just when my secretary was in the next room engrossed in prayer, the nurses walked in and wanted to treat me.
Of course, I refused to allow them to touch me. In spite of my protests that my secretary would be with me in just a few moments, the nurses insisted that I be tended to immediately. I therefore asked one of them to call up my wife and ask her to send over a yeshiva student to help me. But they refused me this favor. So I asked that at least a male nurse tend to me. But they refused this request, as well. It was a Sunday, when the hospital is understaffed.
My shouts did not do the job, so I politely called over one of the nurses and asked to speak to her. I have no idea what went through this nurse’s mind in those moments. All I thought about was Miriam Haneviah, sister of Moshe and Aharon, whom we read about in the previous week’s parashah of Beha’alotcha. I thought that if I shared stories of the Torah with them just then, they would take me for a lunatic and leave me alone.
I told this nurse that Miriam said only a small thing against her brother Moshe, yet was struck with tzara’at. Who knows what her punishment would have been had she spoken outright lashon hara.
“How do you know that my Jewish name is Miriam?” she asked, shaken and pale.
The truth is that I did not know this beforehand. But I understood that she thought the story was a portent of what she could expect to happen to her.
I strongly felt Hashem’s hand directing me specifically to this nurse and telling her specifically this story. Taking full advantage of the moment, I warned her, “Do not touch me, lest what happened to Miriam happen to you!”
The woman was visibly alarmed. She quickly called all of the other nurses to leave my room and called in a male nurse, who tended to me appropriately. From that day on, my word was law among all the hospital staff.
