"I think your son should get seven stitches for his cut and he'll be
fine."
"Dr. Smith, is that what you would do if he were your son?"
"No, I'd take him to a plastic surgeon."

"And I (G-d) commanded your judges at that time saying 'Listen
amongst your brothers.' " (Divorim 1:17) Rav Zalman Sorotzkin zt"l said that
a judge should always view the parties as his brothers, not nameless,
faceless strangers.

"When you say Tehillim (Psalms), daven as though it is YOUR mother,
father, brother, sister or child." (Rav Chaim Shmulevitz zt"l said to Mirrer
Yeshiva students before saying Tehillim for the hijacked victims in 1970.)

Have a great Shabbos !!

Rabbi Chaim Flom

Dear Rabbi Flom,
That story about Rav Chaim Shmulevitz is very inspiring and quite relevant.
Tzivy

Dear Tzivy,
Actually, there was a little typo in my dvar Torah. It was 1976 and not 1970. (It was for the victims of Entebbe.) My mechutan, Rav Yerachmiel Chussid, a rebbe in the Mir,told me that Rav Chaim said that if a person didn't have this in mind he didn't fulfill his obligation of davening for them.
Take care.
Rabbi Flom

As an aside; when a baby boy is being evaluated as to whether or not his bilirubin (yellow color) is down enough to have a bris performed and the doctor says, "It's okay.", I recommend that the question be asked of that doctor.

"Dr. Smith, is that what you would do if he were your son?"

Often, I've found that the doctor will say that he would wait.

Everyone showing up for a "non-bris", guests from out of town, and "wasting" the money spent preparing for the seudah, should never be reasons to want to procede over the well-being of the child. I have seen this several times, also, when parents are told to postpone the bris. "...for our animals and shelters for our children."

quote:

Often, I've found that the doctor will say that he would wait.

Might one possible reason for this purported tendeny might be that some doctors are prone to lose touch with their subservient role to Hashem, and thus might under-estimate the strength of which the requirement to have a Bris on the 8th day is given?

Since by nature someone able to perform surgery on another must be able to get beyond their emotions and empathy, it might well be that a surgeon's ability to be so objective on his own son is diminished, and the question, as proposed, might not be the ideal formulation of the essence of the inquiry.

The natural tendency is to be most concerned about ourselves and our loved ones. Even one who believes in HaShem would be likely to react this way.

Chovos haL'vavos expresses the different stages one goes through to reach a total belief in his Creator. It isn't a level that one easily or even always or ever finds oneself. It is a goal for us to work towards, but one that's difficult to fully realize.

That a doctor or anyone loses track of their "subservient role to Hashem" requires that one had such an awareness to begin with. Certainly, I would hope that Jewish doctors would be closer to this understanding then the goysha doctors, however, it too often seems to be the opposite. The non-Jews today often tend to show more respect for our traditions than we may show.

By human nature one's own property is dearer than someone else's. Even to those who are more objective. And, whereas, the decision given to another may be medically prudent, we tend to err on the side of caution more often with our own than another's.

As for "emotions and empathy", these are qualities that are important for a good surgeon to have. It must be tempered with good judgement, however.

I recently was involved with a case where a young chossen was critically injured in a motorcycle mishap. The hospital where he was first taken wanted to amputate his leg. It seemed a medically responsible and realistic thing to do. The surgeon was being quite objective. Fortunately, it was, with the help of das Torah, decided to move him to a different hospital. There the surgeons were more cautious and sensitive to the family's situation. Although they agreed that amputation was the likely outcome, they ran more tests, first.

B"H,, miracle after miracle occurred as large numbers of people all over the world were saying Tehillim. The doctors, having experienced such miracles before, were still amazed that injury after injury became treatable. But it was their "emotions and empathy" that gave the time to let the prayers pierce Shamyim.

There is an ideal and there is a real world. Reality is the mix and range of these. Wisdom is the ability to know what mix is needed when.
Faith is the path to Wisdom.

We should try to remember that if we can be as expert in the halachas of how to conduct ourselves as we are expert in the halachas of how others should conduct themselves, we will have reached the entrance to both Faith and Wisdom. Have a Great Shabbos.