Bnei Brak, Israel – No one can say that he can’t study Torah. Hillel obligates the poor, Rav Eliezer bar Charsum obligates the rich, Yosef Hatzadik obligates the good-looking…. and now a bochur in Bnei Brak obligates the mentally ill.
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B., a 32-year old bochur from a Bukharian background who has been living in one of Marpeh Lanefesh’s 11 hostels and 8 protected residences, made a siyum on the entire Shas. He persevered the past 7 years ,studying from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in a small Bnei Brak kolel until he was finally able to announce that he had completed the goal he set out for himself. In addition to finishing the Shas, he also passed the Chief Rabbinate exams on issur and heter, and received Semicha for his impressive accomplishments. B. has also been teaching Tanya to a small group of students with slight mental disabilities.
“Without a doubt, he is extremely talented and has an amazing memory,” says Asaf Atzur, the general director of Marpeh Lanefesh. “He utilized his abilities to achieve his goal, with much sweat and siyata dishmaya. Every success helps a person with his individual struggles. He put his efforts into in-depth learning and this helped his rehabilitation. We decided to make a big event celebrating his accomplishments to show our other patients what they are capable of achieving despite their disorders.”
B. began to suffer from schizophrenia at the age of 17-18. He claimed to hear people talking to him, and other symptoms typical of the illness. Pronounced a difficult case, he was at first hospitalized and treated with heavy drugs. Afterwards, he was discharged to a Marpeh Lanefesh hostel, where the staff spent two years working to stabilize him with medications and psychological treatments. When he was 20, he was finally ready to enter a protected residence with another 6 men.
Rav Shmuel Pollack, the chairman of Marpeh Lanefesh, says, “We did everything we could to help him. He was very ill and several times had to be hospitalized. It took him 5 years to stabilize, but he has been doing well since. He himself decided he wanted to undertake a serious challenge and began learning Shas. Because he is very bright and a masmid, he was able to follow through on his goal. The result is the impressive Siyum Hashas that we celebrated this week.”
A distinguished roster of rabbonim and askanim attended B.’s Siyum Hashas including former Chief Rabbi Yisroel Lau, Rabbi of west Bnei Brak and member of Rav Nissim Karelitz’s beis din, Rav Shmuel Elazar Stern, Rav Elchonon Cholk of Ezer Mitzion medical association, and many Health Ministry officials including high-ranking executives, psychiatrists and the head of the Tel Aviv District who wanted to see the special event with their own eyes.
Rav Stern said at the occasion, “I was many times in a Siyum Hashas but I’ve never attended a Siyum Hashas like this.”
During the Siyum, Rav Lau told B. that after finishing Shas, one should right away start again at the beginning. To the surprise of everyone present, B. stood up and began to recite by heart the beginning page of Brachos. When tested further, he revealed that he knew a sizable portion of Shas by heart.
Despite B. requiring medication his whole life, Rav Pollak says that Marpeh Lanefesh’s administration believes he is ready for a shidduch seeing the great advances he has made. “We have couples like this who suffer from mental illness but were able to marry and found their own homes. There is potential after they have advanced as B. has.” Rabbi Pollack says that B. is planning to continue learning his whole life, and he fully expects that the public “will hear of him” in 5-6 years. “He invested huge efforts, and can take pride in having what to show for it,” he says.
Very nice keep up
Wow! In the zechus of his mesiras nefesh l’Torah, may he have a refu’ah sheleimah bekarov, and find “di richtiger zivvug”.
amazing story !!!
may he have a refu’ah sheleimah bekarov, and find “di richtiger zivvug”.
how come R’Lau didn’t come to my siyum Hashas?
Its bittersweet
We should all learn from him that nothing stands in the way of a person when he sets a goal! If you really try, you can acheive anything bsyata dishmaya
great. if he is schnizophrenic, he should get enough sameechas for each personalities…at least if they each know
MazalTov and lot of Nachas. My personal question how will they know when he isn’t well enough to Pasken Shallus? Hopefully he will always remain well and this will give him the strength to do so. great work and it should be a chizuk to the rest of us Amen . Let this be a zechus for the geulah to come closer.
An amazing story no doubt. I give a lot of credit to Rav Shmuel Pollack of Marpeh Lanefesh who ondoubtedly didn’t give up on B. He must have worked hard to get B on track.
Kol Hakavod Rav Pollack
#10 Why are you making a joke out of this? Itis a big accomplishment and not a joke.
thanks to VINNews for putting up this article that is a SIMchas hotorah thank u!!
very energizing im working on my semicha!
I mammesh love this story. It brings out what mesiras nefesh really is.
Why is mental illness a joke? Do you people laugh at “cripples”? How about cancer patients? Someone who had a stroke?
You are pitifully disgusting. I hope to G-d you never get in an accident or develop a serious illness. On the other hand, you need to have a taste of how mental illness affects so many fine families through no fault of their own.
In my family, there isn’t mental illness, but sadly, I have seen other terrible conditions, including my beloved cousin pass away at age 20, 3 weeks after giving birth. You sick creeps need to learn compassion. The best way to do so would be to volunteer for ONE DAY at Bais Ezra, HASC, or some other fine facility.
Grow up.
schizophrenics are historically smart people (in general).
A schizophrenic that thought he was the emperor of China (honestly) and received secret messages from the FBI or CIA through magazines to save our country was so good in math that he ended up winning a Nobel Piece prize. This was such an amazing accomplishment that his story was made into a movie.
I heard many amazing stories told by schizophrenics themselves. They are a part of the organization NAMI. Its National Alliance for the Mentally ill. Their stories are really inspiring
Remember John Nash the schizophrenic mathematician who was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, but he was definitely not stable through most of his adult life. He could not keep a marriage together, had to be forced into the hospital several times etc etc.
One need not cancel the other out, he made legitimate nobel worthy contributions to his field and was legitimately mentally ill, with all the problems that come along with it.
He is not less crazy because he is genius, or less genius because he is crazy.