Sick

I have not had a post for a while because I have been sick. I felt weird all of Shabbos Nachamu and on Sunday I couldn't get out of bed. I took my temperature and it was 102.7 so the doctor told me to go to the ER. When in the ER I got hooked up to an IV got some bloodwork taken and had some X-rays taken. It turns out I got a bacterial pneumonia and I have been out of work all week so far. I am hoping to go back to work on Friday so I don't go a full week without pay since I cannot afford it.

One interesting thing about getting pneumonia after Tisha Bav is how and why did this happen. One of the questions my doctor asked me was if my immune system might have been low for any reason. When I told him about Tisha Bav right away he said that was how I was able to get pneumonia. With that in mind, does that mean that one can get a Heter not to fast on any fast day because it can lead to this every time. My parents claim I get sick after every fast day. I remember not eating anything at all after Yom Kippur last year because I was sick but beyond that I don't remember.

Now what many in the Frum world don't realize is why we get sick. One outlook is that we are being punished for something we don't know so we need to reflect and do teshuva so we don't get sick again. Another outlook is that we are getting sick so we are getting punished in this world instead of getting punished in the next world. With these two approaches or outlook's to sickness, they should be combined and accepted with Joy. If we accept it with Joy, it will lead to better things. As Rebbe Nachman teaches, if we are not happy, we will be sad which will lead to depression and once we are depressed we are no longer serving Hashem properly.