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Jan 3, 2016
Charedi women are dying of breast cancer, like everyone else
Do you want insane? Here is insane.
The following story was told to the author (not me) by a local doctor...
The following story was told to the author (not me) by a local doctor...
A 36-year-old woman sees her dermatologist for an irritated nipple. The doctor palpates a tumor the size of a golf ball and immediately sends her to a breast surgeon. The patient returns to the dermatologist a month later for the same condition. The doctor, shocked to see that she has not had surgery, asks if she had seen the surgeon. The woman says she was concerned about the level of kashrut at the hospital to which she was sent and, upon her rabbi’s advice, was waiting to have surgery at another hospital with stricter kashrut. She dies not long after.The original article, which was also published in The Jerusalem Post, is available on her personal site.
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So there is a rabbi in the world who is an idiot - is that news?
ReplyDeleteone issue is, as you say, the rabbi is an idiot. hopefully at some point he'll either wise up or his kehilla and followers will realize it and stop following an idiot.
Deletethe second issue is awareness. if the community isnt aware of the seriousness of breast cancer, this leaves a lot of room for people to act like idiots. the more awareness there is, the less chance you'll get stories like this.
Even if he wises up, it is too late for her.
DeleteI would presume that the doctor would have made sure that she was aware of the seriousness of her situation.
DeleteChassid(ah?) Shotah in action. Glad she was the one who died for her "frumkeit" and no one else.
ReplyDeleteActually it would be more accurate to say she died for her Rabbi's frumkeit.
DeleteOnly a Shotah asks a Rav to begin with, and only a true Shotah follows such advice at the expense of their own lives. People are responsible for their own decisions; foolishness cannot be outsourced.
DeleteI wonder if she used the term "cancer" when informing her Rabbi. There is a tendency to avoid using the very word as a sort of ayin hara or something. That might also hinder awareness.
ReplyDeleteNonsense - people use the term "the machlah" which everyone knows means cancer.
DeleteFirst of all, how clear did the Doctor make it to her that she needed an operation immediately? The link indicates that there is a general lack of appreciation in the Charedi community about the dangers of breast cancer. A Dr. who practices among such a population has to take some responsibility to educate his patients. The woman did not completely ignore the problem, she planned on getting an operation. Did she think she had a long time (six months, a year) to deal with the problem? Where did she get that impression? Not sure you can hang all of this on her rav.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, what is puzzling about what the Rav's psak is, why can't you have both? Let her go to the first hospital, and organize some people to bring her mehadrin food on a rotating basis? If, r"l, a frum person in the US had to go to a hospital to get an operation, and the hospital had no kosher food, I cannot imagine a Rav here not saying (1) schedule the operation ASAP and (2) where is the hospital, I will try to get you kosher food (maybe from a local bikur cholim, maybe ship it in, whatever.)
I dont know any more details beyond the few in the referenced story.
Deleteregarding the first question though, we all know that to many in the haredi community rabbonim get preference over doctors in decisions. I can see a scenario in which the doctor explained the urgency and the rav could still have convinced her it isnt really so urgent, or her hakpada on kashrus would be a zchus for her.
Which makes the "rabbi" not only an idiot, but a murderer as well.
DeleteAt this point, the charedim are following a different Torah than the rest of us shomrei mitzvot do.
ReplyDeleteMark, the definite article is out of place.
DeleteYou're probably right. It's only "some of".
Delete