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Ariel “Arik” Sharon was a famous Israeli statesman, former Prime Minister and retired Major General who served in the Israel Defense Forces for more than 25 years. In mid-December 2005, Prime Minister Sharon spent two days in a hospital after suffering a minor stroke, which doctors said caused no irreparable brain damage.

The Midrash teaches us that from the beginning of Sefer B’reishis until Parshas VaY’chi, the word “choleh” is not mentioned. It was Yaakov Avinu who asked Hashem to bring illness to the world. Yaakov requested of Hashem, as a show of mercy, to bring illness so that a person can put his affairs in order. Primarily, if a person dies suddenly, he will not be at peace without first having the opportunity to make proper arrangements among his children. Therefore, if a person has some time prior to dying, he can have yishuv ha’daas, a settling of his mind, surrounding his children. Yaakov’s request was accepted and, thus, Yaakov was the first person to become sick. But on occasion, finding out that one is sick can be a pathway to enabling the cure to come, too.

The seventh plague wreaked particular havoc on the fields of Egypt. The hail, a heavenly amalgamation of ice and fire, destroyed anything and everything that was left outdoors. This included crops, vegetation, and animals. However, the Torah makes specific mention of what was not destroyed. The wheat and the spelt that was left outside were not destroyed, since they are late in sprouting. Rashi cites the Tanchuma, which explains that it was a “pele” – a wonder – that these types were not destroyed. Why did the wheat and spelt deserve such a miracle? Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi shlita explains that there was a lesson here for Pharaoh to realize: He should be flexible and yielding instead of brazen and impertinent – like the wheat and spelt whose flexibility in the fields allowed them to remain upright even as the devastating hail fell. The “pele” is a reference to the fact that a miracle was performed for Pharaoh to see, and he still didn’t want to recognize it.

It was the chasunah of a relative. A happy time, a special time, and Reb Anshel was filled with gratitude to be there. A retired businessman with a large and ever-growing family immersed in lives of avodas Hashem, Reb Anshel is known and respected in the Toronto community, and beyond. As a guest myself, I was also participating in the beautiful simchah. During the Chasan’s Tish, waiting for the badeken ceremony to begin, I noticed Reb Anshel coming out of the crowd, toward me.

The winds of Enlightenment and Reform were overspreading Germany, threatening to swallow the hapless Orthodox communities that maintained their religious identities. Into this hostile environment, rose the great Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch zt”l, who fought back the taint of the secular invaders with the courage of a lion and the wisdom of generations of Torah knowledge. But even in his early days, Rav Hirsch was unsure of his true calling in life.

When Rav Yisroel Spira zt”l, the Bluzhover Rebbe, was forced to relocate from Istrik, Poland, to Lvov, it was then under Soviet rule. According to Soviet practice, each person was to be employed in a productive job; otherwise, he was classified as a parasite and was liable to be exiled to Siberia. There were no exceptions. All chasidic rabbis had to find productive positions in the Communist utopia and were forbidden to use the title “Rabbi.”