You Changed My Life!

The one phrase that I don’t need translated for me is, “You changed my life.”

During our recent North American speaking tour, I heard it from almost everyone who spoke to me. And now, after the tour has been completed, I’m seeing this in the many letters people write me. Here is a prime example:

Shalom and Hello Rabbi Arush! 

This is Dov speaking. I met you privately in Miami and then again after your shiur in the Lighthouse Project. Although I don’t understand Hebrew, the amazing simultaneous translation made me feel like I was understanding everything you said. I was overwhelmed that you remembered me when we spoke, just like I was overwhelmed from your books. You changed my life, and that’s no exaggeration. Here’s proof:

I took the advice you gave me personally and prayed to HASHEM every day, thanking Him for my bipolar disorder. I prayed for an hour every day. Everybody around me was very supportive however I sensed deep down that they didn’t really see it happening. How could I blame them? There are currently over five million people diagnosed with this illness in America and outside of a few rare exceptions, we do not see incidences of recovery. 

Medically speaking, there is no cure for this ailment. I didn’t care. I prayed and prayed. I prayed an hour a day for a full year. I was in communication Rabbi Aharon Dobinski throughout this time and when I told him what the medical books say, he told me that is total nonsense. His words were “If there is no hope, there is no G-d.” Please recognize that he strengthened me immeasurably. Your entire English-language staff is phenomenal.

In the Garden of Emuna on Page 36, you wrote in bold lettering, that sufficient prayer will bring a solution to any problem. I was relying on that teaching. I was relying on it very heavily and it did not fail me. After a year of incessant praying, there was a major breakthrough. The sickness felt like it had left my soul and the constant and perpetual emotional struggle went away. We are now very close now, I feel, to a complete recovery and a new lease on life, what you refer to as “full faith”; in other words, it’s right around the corner in my grasp.

I meant to tell you all of this in person, but it was not the appropriate venue. Rabbi Arush, this email is not meant only as tremendous THANK YOU for showing me the way that HASHEM will help me. Please consider that when I told my local Rabbi I feel better, I asked him if I should now go back and help others get out of the maze of mental illness – he said definitely yes.  

Rabbi Arush, your teachings are capable of helping thousands to overcome bipolar disorder like I did. You changed my life and I’ll never forget you for this.

With infinite gratitude, Dov from South Florida