Rabbinic Wisdom and Pain Management

For pain in the stomach he should take three hundred long pepper grains and every day drink a hundred of them in wine. (Talmud: Gittin 69b)

After a few days of comfort, energy, and enthusiasm to go about in the world, things have been like a computer with way too many windows open at once. There has been a system crash. Faina has been in pain and the medications have at best tamped down level eight or nine pain to four or five. There have been a few nights that, were it not for Ambien, Oxycotyn and Oxycodone would have been totally sleepless. Since the slice of lemon-poppy loaf cake on Tuesday, there has been no wading into the pool of oral intake of food. Pure TPN nutrition (IV) and the monthly B12 injection.

The rabbis of the Talmud thought they had the solution. Their prescription of pepper grains and wine would not have been helpful in any way, but I won't sell those sages short. I have seen their wisdom come through:
"Abba son of Hanina said: One who visits an the sick takes away a sixtieth of their pain" (Talmud: Nedarim 39b). It was almost a miracle, in and of itself, but Faina was up to a visit from Rabbi Kahn yesterday. She got her energy up for seeing him and the conversation was restorative.

Rabbi Kahn has played a special role for Faina. After her introduction to the rabbinate, in the form of Israeli Orthodox rabbis and the influence they have in that society, Bruce was a radical alternative. She got to know him best when we met with him for several sessions of pre-marital counseling. He also officiated at our wedding which took place at what was already a museum, the Lloyd Street Synagogue.

Visiting takes many forms, particularly in today's world. Whittling away a the pain is a mitzvah. Special guests in our house tonight are a challah, lovingly baked by Janice, and an apple crisp, equally flavored with rachmanut, from Marilyn. The math is challenging, but imagine one-sixtieth of 59-sixtieths and then one-sixtieth taken away from that. Whittle away and whittle away.