A regular reader of the Zichru Toras Moshe related an incredible story. It would be hard to believe the story if he hadn’t personally told it to me, but I confirmed all the details with him and the other party. He requested that his name not be mentioned, so we’ll refer to him as Feivel.
As he was learning first seder in Bais Medrash Gavoah, Feivel remembered how a relative of his had a particularly daunting scan scheduled for that day. Feivel wanted to do something as a zechus for his relative, so he decided that he would start learning retzifus, without interruption. Generally, when one intends to learn retzifus, he does so at the beginning of seder, then the whole seder is uplifted. Yet, Feivel decided that he would start a short retzifus for today, since he only remembered his relative’s scan toward the end of morning seder. As it was, he was able to do five minutes retzifus, and so he confirmed with his chavrusah that they would learn b’retzifus for the next five minutes.
After seder, Feivel called his relative to ask how the scan went. The relative, who we’ll call Nachman, confirmed that it could’ve been worse, but b’chasdei Hashem, it turned out better than he’d anticipated.
Wanting to know if his retzifus meant anything, Feivel curiously asked Shmuel when it took place, but Nachman didn’t want to say.
“Oh, don’t bother asking,” came Nachman’s reply. “It’s a long story...”
Being close to his relative, Feivel felt comfortable probing a bit deeper for the details. “Can you tell me the sequence of events? It’ll mean a lot to me.”
“It took place at nine in the morning,” confirmed Shmuel. “I live an hour away from Manhattan, so I had to be on the road before eight.”
“Oh well,” replied the Feivel. “While learning first seder, I undertook something as a zechus for you, but I guess I missed the boat!”
“What do you mean?” asked Nachman.
“Only at twelve twenty three did I remember your scan, and as a zechus, I took upon myself to learn several minutes retzifus, but by the time that took place, your scan was long over.”
“Well, actually,” Nachman then said, “I must tell you that there is more to the story. At nine o’clock, the scan was performed, and the doctor there then said he wanted to review it with the head doctor. Apparently, he was scared to diagnose it on his own, as he looked quite concerned and didn’t want to break the bad news to me without confirmation from the head doctor.
“When the head doctor finally came, he requested that the scan be performed by his personal sonographer, as he doesn’t rely on any other sonographers than his own. Only at 12:30 was I called in for the second scan, and at 12:45 the head doctor took a look at the results. Upon seeing the second one, he proclaimed that it looked significantly different than the previous scan, and that my prognosis would be a much brighter one than they’d first thought.”
The second scan has started two minutes after the “small” kabbalah Feivel had taken—right when his relative Nachman’s situation saw a turning point that affected many long-lasting consequences.
