The Necessary Surgery

Shortly after Reb Shaul Choueka, a rosh chabura in Beth Medrash Govoha and son of Rabbi Shmuel Choueka, Rav of Congregation Ohel Simcha in Deal, New Jersey, welcomed a baby boy, he and his wife noticed that something was wrong with one of the baby's eyes. Tears and mucus would repeatedly collect near the inner corner of the eye, sometimes leading to infection.

The doctors diagnosed the baby with a congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction, commonly known as a blocked tear duct. The tiny passage that normally drains tears from the eye into the nose had not opened properly. As a result, tears and mucus could not drain normally and were accumulating near the eye.

The doctor reassured Reb Shaul that the condition was fairly common in infants and often resolves on its own during the first year of life. For the time being, they would wait and hope that the duct would open naturally.

But months passed, and nothing changed.

When the baby was over a year old and the problem persisted, the doctor recommended a relatively simple procedure to open the blocked duct and allow the tears to drain properly into the nose.

Reb Shaul agreed to schedule it. The first available appointment, however, fell during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah.

To Reb Shaul, that did not feel right. The procedure was not an emergency, and he did not want to schedule something elective during those precious days if it could reasonably wait. After discussing it with his Rav, he decided to postpone it.

The procedure was rescheduled for sometime during the winter.

But as the date approached, Reb Shaul hesitated once again. The condition was bothersome, but it was not dangerous or urgent. Undergoing the procedure would mean missing time from his regular seder in yeshiva. Why not wait until the bein hazmanim before Pesach when it would not interfere with his learning?

Once again, he postponed it.

As Pesach approached, Reb Shaul and his wife began making the final arrangements. Their son was now nearly two years old, and after waiting so long and exploring every other possibility, it seemed that the procedure could no longer be avoided.

And then, shortly before the scheduled date, something remarkable happened. The tear duct opened on its own. The drainage began functioning normally, the recurring infections disappeared, and the procedure was no longer necessary.

Just days before Pesach, as families everywhere were busy with their final Yom Tov preparations, Reb Shaul and his wife gathered their family for a seudas hodaah. Their little boy, whom they had expected to bring in for a procedure, was completely fine.

For Reb Shaul, the timing carried a powerful message. Twice, he had postponed the procedure because he did not want something nonurgent to come at the expense of what he considered precious: first the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah, and later his regular sedarim in yeshiva.

In the end, the procedure for which he had been unwilling to sacrifice those precious times was the very procedure his son never needed.

Sometimes, when a person makes room in his life for what matters most, Hashem shows him that he has lost nothing at all.