I started the day knowing that I was supposed to have cataract surgery at 4:30 p.m. This is a short procedure, and if all goes well one can be released within an hour. This would not effect on my learning in kollel that morning, and so I stuck to my regular schedule, keeping my phone off during morning hours. This is an iron-clad rule for me: No phone while learning, no connection whatsoever to the world outside the Gemara during kollel hours.
The seder started at 9 a.m., and at 9:30 I got the bitter news that the Rosh Yeshivah Rav Gershon Eidelstein zt”l had passed away. A pity I won’t be at the levayah, I thought. Being at the levayah of a gadol hador is a great zechus, and this was a chance to part from the one who had been a Rav and a source of guidance to me. But I understood it was Hashem’s will that I undergo surgery, and I hoped that perhaps I would succeed in participating in the levayah a bit late.
When I got home, my wife said they had called from the hospital and asked that I move up the appointment to 3:30.
“Excellent. This way I’ll be able to participate in the levayah.”
“No so excellent,” my wife responded, “because when they called and said they wanted to talk to you, I told them I couldn’t reach you, so they left the 4:30 appointment as it was.”
I tried anyway. I called the hospital, and they said the 3:30 slot had already been taken. I said “Gam zu l’tovah. This is Hashem’s will, and whatever He does is the best.” We would go to the hospital for our 4:30 appointment.
One needs to arrive an hour before the appointment, so we showed up at 3:30. We started filling out forms, then sat down to wait, and they called me immediately. When I asked how it was possible that my turn had already come, they told me, “The anesthesia did not take effect for the previous patient; he needs to be given something else, so the appointment became available to you!”
Baruch Hashem, the anesthesia had an immediate effect on me, the surgery was done quickly and efficiently, and within a short while I was released.
But there is more to the hashgachah pratis. There was no regular transportation to Bnei Brak in the area, and then a driver came over to me and asked if I wanted to go to Bnei Brak. Thus I made it to the levayah I had so wanted to attend.
I saw tangibly how I did not lose anything by keeping my phone off while learning, and this strengthened me to continue this custom.
