Aviva Borodkin of Crown Heights tells us of personal miracles she experienced this past year.
By Meital Sidon
HOUSE OF CHESED
Aviva Borodkin lives in Crown Heights, very close to the Rebbe, on Union Street. She works for Rabbi Berel Lazar’s organization for Russian Jews. The Borodkin home is open to all. They have a basement for guests, mainly for chassanim who come to the Rebbe before their wedding. This is not seasonal; it’s all year round. Shadchanim give the Borodkin’s phone number out as a place where those dating can stay.
The idea was her husband’s, says Aviva. When they married, he wanted an open home. “That’s the way it is in Crown Heights,” she adds. “Everyone here hosts.”
Aviva came to Eretz Yisroel for a week. I met her right before she was traveling to Yerushalayim where she was going to make a seudas hodaa.
PAINFUL LANDING
Last year, Aviva took her husband to Eretz Yisroel for his fiftieth birthday. It was his first time in Eretz Yisroel and of course, it was a moving experience. However, on their return, everything went awry. She relates:
“We returned on a Friday. I often suffer from headaches, but this time the headache was unbearable. I went to a doctor who gave me all sorts of medication and referred me immediately for an MRI. It was all very quick and after the examination, the doctor said he found a tumor the size of a clementine and I needed immediate surgery.”
It all happened a day before Rosh Chodesh Adar I. She wrote to the Rebbe and in the answer she opened to it was about a 19 Kislev farbrengen and the story of the events of the arrest and Geula, about how the Alter Rebbe was moser nefesh for the study of Chassidus and about the importance of bringing people to learn Chassidus. There was nothing in the letter about healing.
“I did not see any connection to my head,” says Aviva. “I did not understand it but I know that the Rebbe always gives an answer.”
TO SEE THE GOOD
In Crown Heights, the Russian N’shei Chabad get together every month, each time in someone else’s house. That month, they had asked in advance that the farbrengen be held in Aviva’s house. The day after she got the medical news, she hosted a Rosh Chodesh Adar I farbrengen for about forty women.
Mrs. Sara Tova Best led the farbrengen. She spoke about the month of Adar and how as Jews we are happy people, and how simcha transforms things for the good, v’nahapoch hu.
“I remember that she said that even if a glass breaks, a Jew says, ‘mazal tov.’ The message of the farbrengen was that we always need to see the good and always need to be happy, especially in the month of Adar when it is possible to transform everything for the good.
“This message got to me and to a certain extent, I calmed down, though not completely,” she admits. “But I stopped being afraid of the surgery.”
FIGHT FOR LIFE
The surgery took place on 4 Adar II. She had an excellent surgeon and boruch Hashem, all went well. When she was in the hospital, she wasn’t alone for more than twenty minutes. Her husband and children were at her side. “Hashem showed me how much He loves me and how much the people around me love me.
“It’s not that I am happy about what happened, but I got to see this love from Hashem, my family, and those close to me, including the best guests in the world who prayed for me. I am sure Hashem listened to their prayers.”
After a few days, Aviva returned home and her daughter and son-in-law, who live in Eretz Yisroel, came to help in her recovery. One day, she did not feel well again and she had a fever. She went to the doctor who sent her to the hospital.
“I had picked up a powerful infection. I was hospitalized for two and a half weeks in which they tried to save my life. It was a terrible ordeal!”
A week went by and still there was no improvement in her condition. In fact, things were only getting worse, as the doctors struggled to battle on three different fronts, in the blood, the stomach and the digestive system.
“During those days, I could not daven and could barely think. But suddenly I had the idea to check the mezuzos, even though we are very particular to check them every Chodesh Elul.” She called her eldest son and asked him to take all the mezuzos in the house to be checked.
When the sofer opened the mezuza for the front door it crumbled in his hands. The mezuza from the bedroom was also problematic and they exchanged that one as well. Her son was in shock as he had never seen such a thing. However, once the mezuzos were changed it was clear to them that things would start to get better and that is exactly what happened.
I COULD NEVER IMAGINE
Meanwhile, Pesach was fast approaching and one can only imagine what the situation was like. “I am a mother to thirteen children, Boruch Hashem. Before the operation, I sat with my seventeen-year-old daughter and made a plan with her about what needed to be done, what to buy and when, how and when to clean. She made Pesach, the whole thing, along with studying for her tests, and she did it happily. Once again, I saw how Hashem is with me and how much my children love me.”
After recovering somewhat in the hospital, Aviva went to the Eshel hotel for more rest. She wanted to look and feel more normal before returning home.
The first time she stood once again to daven was on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. She felt well, tired and happy.
“Before Shavuos I went outside for the first time. It was a holiday for me but people who saw me were afraid to look at me. I didn’t look like myself, I was swollen. But it was at that time that I began to get back to myself somewhat.”
TO THANK HASHEM FOR THE MIRACLES
Last Tishrei, like every other Tishrei, they had guests, forty-fifty people whom she took care of, serving, setting up, cooking …
“As far as I’m concerned, being able to host means I’m back to myself! I love Tishrei. I see how Hashem does miracles in my kitchen. It doesn’t seem possible to cook for fifty people but everyone enjoys it and there is plenty, or they are polite … but they all say there is plenty and it’s all delicious. This is my miracle, that I fully recovered.
“After this past Tishrei, tests were done and the tumor did not come back, boruch Hashem. The doctor looked at my file and found it hard to believe. He and his colleagues were in shock that this woman is alive, because usually just one of the three things she had is fatal. With one of them, just 10% recover, and there were another two bacteria that just 50% survive. And I had all three! The doctor looked through the pages, looked at me, and said, ‘wow!’”
The day after the follow-up tests, she wrote to the Rebbe again to tell him the good news and to thank him. She made a good resolution to start learning Chassidus, once a week, with someone who wasn’t yet learning Chassidus. The answer she opened to was about, “shivisi Hashem l’negdi samid,” and the Rebbe explains at length that Hashem is omnipotent and a Jew needs to know this wherever he is and no matter the circumstances. And she experienced this!
The Shabbos of the Kinus HaShluchim, Aviva made a seudas hodaa at which she told of all the miracles she had experienced. Then she went to Eretz Yisroel for a week to attend a wedding and to make a seudas hodaa with her children who live there.
SEEING THE ‘MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE’
We will conclude with her message which she communicates simply and powerfully:
“I strongly believe that Hashem does everything for our good. I tried to be happy and to remember that ‘simcha breaks through boundaries.’
“All along the way, I reminded myself that there are good people who are praying for me and that Hashem runs the world and everything that happens in it, and that He is certainly good and that everything that occurs is to bring Moshiach.
“I think this is the way to open our eyes and see the Geula; not that I understand how it brings Moshiach but I know that it happens to bring Moshiach. When we open our eyes and see and internalize that the dira for Hashem, i.e., the world, belongs to Him, including all that happens in it, this is Geula-vision.
“And if this is our outlook on life and on events that occur, then this is what will bring about the revelation of Moshiach and our seeing the true and complete Geula, immediately.”