Second Chance

I speak from experience – I was given a second chance. I was fortunate enough to survive and completely recover from a cardiac arrest in 2001. I was extremely lucky that this event happened while I was in a major teaching hospital’s operating room.

Since that time, I believe that I have become a much better person. It has taken me several years but I have completely changed my life. I began this process by going through a divorce, freeing myself from a marriage that had not been happy for many years. I have since joined and become extremely active in a shul and in the total Jewish community – something that I had not participated in for many years. I now attend shul everyday and participate in the morning Minyan.

Life is now so much more beautiful for me with shul and Torah in my life. I have a host of new friends – good, caring ones. I have no family in this city and when the Yomtovim are here, I have more invitations than I can handle. I donate as much money as I can afford to various Tzedakah funds and have begun my personal tzedakah project, where I bake and sell my specialty cake and donate all the money to charity.

None of this would have been possible in my “old” life, as my spouse would not attend shul – even on Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur and believed that “charity begins at home”. He was antisocial and didn’t want much to do with friendships. Of course, in those days, it would not have occurred to me to attend shul or social functions on my own.

Since my “rebirth” in 2001, I thank Hashem daily and believe that I have become a far better person.

PS: This is my first post here.

I would have applied myself harder in the area of gemorrah. I’m in awe of folks that can plug away on a sugya for hours, while my attention wanders half way thru the daf.

Hi Minyan, glad you got that second chance. Welcome.

If I had a second chance, I would spend that last Shabbos at my parents’ house 17 years ago for my birthday, instead of putting it off for the next Shabbos, “because the kids have colds.” It would have meant my children would have seen their Zaydie one more time. He suffered a massive stroke on Sunday and was niftar on Tuesday, and the hospital would not allow them in to see him, even if we would have thought it was a good idea (it wasn’t, with all the tubes in him). That is the biggest charatah of my life, though there are some other things that I would change, as well.