From a Yahrzeit Farbrengen
for
Rabbi Yisroel Jacobson in Hadar Hatorah
By Rabbi Leibel Altein
My zaidie sat by a farbrengen on Shabbos Mevarchim. He
wasn't feeling well and, after the Farbrengen, he tried to pass it off as
nothing. He was told that Dr. Seligson said he has to go to the hospital, but
he didn't want to go. My brother-in-law went over to the Rebbe by Maariv, and
the Rebbe told him that you have to listen to Dr. Seligson. He went to the
hospital Motzoi Shabbos right after Havdola and, later that night, he had a
heart at-tack. Sunday morning - when I came into his room, he was sitting and
writing. What was he writing. I saw his paper, he was sitting and writing a
whole plan for Hadar Hatorah - that's what he was occupied with. And he had,
mamash, a massive heart attack. The next night, Sunday night, he had another
one and, Sunday night, when we came to bring him supper, they were trying to
revive him. It looked like he was unconscious. In the morning he came back to
himself. After a while, he was getting better, as much as he was shayich to
getting better; the family doctor, who knew my zaide and bubbah for many
years, explained to my mother and my aunt that after these two massive heart
attacks, he will physically not be able to live in the house anymore. He will
have to go to a nursing home -- because he literally doesn't have anything to
go on, that's how weak he was. But you'd never know it by looking at his face,
because he was talking about his plans and going home, etc., to do this and do
that. He started carrying on that he has to come home for Shabbos, and the end
result was that he wrote a tzetel to the Rebbe in his own handwriting that he
wants to come home for Shabbos. The Rebbe sent out two or three lines
insisting that he must listen to the doctor, that he has to do it with simcha.
The Rebbe emphasized a few times this about simcha - what the Torah says about
listening to a doctor - you have to do it with simcha. I always say that this
was the reason why he didn't live because he couldn't listen to the doctor
with simcha, he just couldn't. In this state, what was on his mind, he mamash
didn't have a heart left - he was sitting and writing plans for Hadar Hatorah,
on small pieces of paper. That's all he lived for, what should I tell you.
L'chaim!
