Tammuz 15, 5759 / June 29, 1999

Today the incidents of cancer are all too common. Most people have been touched by this ailment in some way at some point in their lives--either having it themselves or watching a loved one suffer through it. In the summer of 1998 I had to undergo treatment for breast cancer. It was a frightening experience, but somehow I believed even this could be for good and prayed in this way. Because of the time being the month of Tammuz I began to see a parallel of my own situation with the prayers of the season.

The Sages tell us that the Second Temple was destroyed because of causeless hatred. The Temple, the source of nurturing for the Jewish People, was destroyed by the cancer of hatred. The Temple itself didn't do anything wrong, yet it was a recipient of the destruction that resulted from the evil decree generated by the hatred of the people for each other. Just as cancer brings death to the body, hatred destroyed the Temple, from which life flowed out to Israel and the world.

The date for my surgery fell during the Three Weeks between 17 Tammuz and 9 Av, during which Jews remember and mourn this tragic event. When I was waking in the recovery room I remember dreaming that an announcement had been made on the national news that preparations were being made to lay the foundations of the Temple in the very near future. I saw this represented by beams being laid down, and I saw this vividly in the dream This dream was so real that when I woke I almost asked the nurse if the foundation had been laid while I was asleep.

As I prayed for my recovery the words of the Psalms came to me time and again: "The L-rd will sustain him on his sickbed; You shall wholly transform his bed of suffering."--Psalm 41:4. These words formed in my mind as a picture of my body being lifted from the bed. Parallel to this I saw the descent of the heavenly Temple onto the physical one on the Mount.

The Book of Ezekiel says the healing waters will flow out of the Third Temple. The week I was told the lump was malignant, the parsha reading was about the death of Miriam, after which the well named for her, that followed the people of Israel through the wilderness, ceased to flow. At the time a friend of mine prayed for me and said he believed this Miriam's well was not meant to cease. Through my recovery, as I meditated and prayed, I saw waters descending from heaven. It was dew on roses and gardens, bringing the dried flowers back to plump, vital fullness. It was streams of reviving waters, renewing and refreshing, as they gently poured from above.

Today, baruch Hashem, that period of my life is over, and I am in health. However, I believe the lessons I learned through this experience were eternal. May we all pray for the rebuilding of the Temple soon and in our time. May we merit to see this blessing come on the earth--when His House shall be a house of prayer for all peoples of the earth and the nurturing, healing waters will flow freely from the underneath the alter to all parts of our pain and disease-ridden world.

May you be blessed with healing in every part of your being.
~Miriam~

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For any interested, the following is a site with information that helped me very much in my recovery.

http://www.islandnet.com/~emorgan/homepage.html