"A Cancerous Lesion Was Found on My Face": Tal Sabag's Emotional Post on a 'Jewish' Approach to Bad News

This happened a month and a half ago.

Tal Sabag went to a dermatologist to get a cream for a dry spot on her face, but the news she received from the doctor took time to digest. "Without a blink, he suddenly told me that I have a cancerous lesion on my face and that it needs to be removed surgically," she writes in a particularly emotional Facebook post.

A feeling of shock hit her in those moments. "I couldn't process the words coming from his mouth. After all, I came to get a prescription for a cream, not to receive such news. At that moment, I felt frightened and slightly dizzy."

When she left the doctor, the first thing she did was raise her head to the sky and talk to the Creator of the Universe. "I asked Him, 'What is the message?' and pleaded to understand the message. After all, there's no reality where the body speaks by itself but rather from what happens inside us in the soul. And I also know and live with the absolute certainty that no evil descends from the heavens. For me, this is not a slogan but truly a way of life. So I looked inward, within myself, with great courage. And I understood! I understood the message, the important lesson of my life, and I'm crying as I write this."

"I chose to see Hashem's love for me through the trial"

The tears of excitement over the prayer answered and the message understood in that moment washed over her face. And immense joy replaced the face of pain. "In that moment, there’s no way to describe the joy. How many answers I received, how many important insights reached my heart."

Then the day of the surgery arrived, and there too, the great joy of recognizing that 'all that Hashem does, He does for the good' accompanied her. "I lay on the operating table, and the tears wouldn't stop flowing. The nurse wiped them and asked if it hurt, so I answered: 'I'm not crying from the pain of the surgery, the needle, and the stitches, but from the revelation, the understanding, and the embrace I felt right there on the table, from my Father in Heaven. That the room is cold and impersonal, and such a sweet expression came from my heart, and such a strong connection to my Father at that moment."

Sabag continues to write: "I must mention that this feeling is not because I'm righteous, because I'm really not. It's because I chose and didn’t run away. I chose to see Hashem's love for me through the trial. I chose to understand the insights from the revelation, and the location next to the right ear. I chose to thank Him for that too because sometimes to understand the message, there are springy pits that even if they hurt, they are for good and exact for you. Even if they aren't pleasant. And most importantly, I understood the message."

Sabag closes her emotional post with the following words: "I pray for you, my sister, and for myself, that we will merit to understand the insights and gifts from all the trials and challenges of life. Now I’m after, and for now, it's just monitoring and review. I would appreciate your prayers for me - Tal bat Yolanda, among the sick of His people Israel."