Ruthy’s story 

One of the most significant aspects of Passover is liberty (חֵרוּת)and freedom (חֹפֶשׁ) . The biblical story tells us about the liberation of the people of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. The Haggadah tells us that “in every generation one must feel as though s/he personally had been rescued from Egypt”.

The personalization of this liberation became very real to my friend Ruthy. A year ago, just before Passover, she was diagnosed with Cancer (סַרְטָן). Instead of having the Seder at her place with her family, she found herself preparing for an operation. When singing

” עֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ / עַתָּה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין ” (We were slaves / Now we are free people),

Ruthy could more easily identify with a slave than with a free person. She felt a slave within her own body – a slave of this horrible disease called Cancer.

But Ruthy is a strong person with an optimistic view of life, and maybe Passover made her remember that she is a free woman and she can make her own decisions about her life; and she chose life – she chose to be healthy.

Ruthy was operated and began the chemotherapy treatment. As a person with free and open mind, she was able to accept it and express her feelings about it openly. She was able to continue being a mother and a wife and a friend having enough free space in her heart for herself and for the others. For her birthday, her older brother gave her an easel, some canvases and colors – she began paining – wonderful, colorful paintings drawn with a free hand by a free spirit. She saw the cancer as a turning point – time to think, to grow, to develop, to prepare for the wonderful life in front of her.

Now Ruthy is healthy – no cancer in her body – she is free, she feels free. She invited some of her girlfriends that were there for her through the advantageous moments of this year to celebrate her health and the beginning of a new healthy and free year of her life.

Ruthy gathered around her an amazing group of women from different stages of her life – from preschool and the youth movement, neighbors and mothers of her boys’ friends. She invited us all to celebrate with her in a spa, enjoying the togetherness and joy of friendship with the water reminding us the free flowing of life. She acknowledged the help she received from us and from her family during the last year. But, most of all, we acknowledged how much we adore the way she have handled and utilized life, how much we love her and the fact that we all gained insights into our own life thanks to Ruthy; our perspective about life, health and freedom has changed and we appreciate now even the simplest things that happen to us.

Before we left, Ruthy opened a bag full of stones (Made by Adi Arbel) and each of us was asked to think about the meaning of health to ourselves and to blindly choose a stone from the bag. Each stone had a word drawn on it. On my stone the word “יְצִירָה” (creativity) appeared, and this blog is one of my creative ways of expressing it.

What is the significance of Health to you?

חַג שָׂמֵחַ(Happy Holiday)

שִׁירָה

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