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As Long As I Live: The Life Story of Aharon Margalit
The Absolute Must-Read--That Inspired Rav Chaim Kanievski! Truth is stranger--and more incredible--than fiction, as this book attests. By age seven, Aharon Margalit had already suffered a terrible trauma which rendered him mute, and was lying in a sanitarium, completely paralyzed by polio. His mother's indomitable efforts to save him from paralysis are inspiration enough, but as the story unfolds, the inspiration mounts. This is a man who meets tragedy with perfect calm; who has fought cancer three times--and with a positive, assertive spirit that boggles the mind. This is a book that will give strength, courage, and hope to every reader, young and old, no matter where their life's journey has brought them. A testament to faith, optimism, and the power of mind over matter. When Rav Chaim Kanievski was presented with this book in the original hebrew, Es'halech, he read it cover to cover and announced that it gave him chizuk. See what it can do for you! 6.2 x 9.2 978-1-
508 pages, Hardcover
First published June 30, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 24, 2014
This was actually incredibly inspiring. I was hesitant at first but the author's voice won me over- Aharon Margalit is someone I wanted to root for and learn from and think in a new way about life.
As a young child spending five years almost entirely immobilized and alone, rather than letting it defeat him, Aharon learned to live in his imagination and became stronger in ways you wouldn't think possible. After miserable years of this constrained existence, thanks to the tears and prayers and struggles of his devoted mother, he defies the odds and regains mobility and returns home (one of 3 survivors, out of the 2000 in Israel struck with polio of that degree of severity! I had no idea how badly the polio epidemic struck Israel, indeed I had no idea it had at all.)
He still faces harsh bullying, verbal and physical, a severe stuttering problem that keeps him cut off from the world, but he beats all the odds time after time and goes through incredible struggles with grit and persistence. The speech therapist is harsh and kind of a jerk- doesn't stop him from going back again because he is determined to heal. His brother dies in army service in the war of Attrition- he and his family are deeply devastated, but he still joins the army in a dangerous position in the Yom Kippur war even though his polio left him with an exemption but he wants to prove to himself that he can defend his country. (Disliked the cop-out disclaimer pandering to chareidim who think army service is automatically evil- don't apologize for a decision you are not ashamed of, and clearly think was the right thing to do. I wonder if it was the same in the hebrew and english editions of this book.)
In the end, Margalit gets married, recovers to the point were he can live a basically normal life and raises a beautiful family- only to be struck again by disaster- cancer. not once but three times.
And still he fights! Like a crazy man. (I mean actually crazy, I kept shaking my head as I read, like, who DOES this stuff. It was intense!)
I learned something new about the meaning of faith, hope, and strength. Margalit balances trust in God with fighting for his life with all his efforts and strength. This is the dichotomy that we debate in philosophy classes yet this man literally lives it and shows you how it works in practice. The Jewish concept of "bitachon" makes a lot more sense to me now.
This book didn't resolve for me another question I've been grappling with, but rather threw it into sharper relief: Judaism's view on obedience to rabbinic authorities and how deeply that extends into our lives. People who profess to live entirely in accordance with the dictates of our sages sometimes are deluding themselves by their lack of consideration to logical inconsistencies in their own choices of when to listen to who, a truth I've started to pick up on (thanks a whole lot, Rabbi Slifkin's blog) and Margalit's father is a prime example. He will stick to his traditions NO MATTER WHAT in many cases (sending his son to a random chassidish school because the rebbe said so! without thinking about if it fits his son's needs!?) and yet he is active in the frum-moshavnik political party for the Knesset elections- against the strictures of the Satmar rebbe who he otherwise follows (and similar examples). He picks and chooses, clearly, but talks as if his traditions are unchanging. He's not alone in that, in the Jewish world, and I remain confused about the topic. I have Daniel Eidenson's Daas Torah: Source Book I guess I should actually try reading it.
Also I learned about the history of what life was like in Israel in the early scarcity years in small town settlements (stupid government throwing a bunch of new Morrocan immigrants who resent Ashkenazi dominance into a farming setttlement of Hungarian Holocaust survivors with no support or mediation systems between the parties...how did you think that was going to go).
Read this book. Appreciate faith. Appreciate persistence and people who overcome their life obstacles. Appreciate life.
As a young child spending five years almost entirely immobilized and alone, rather than letting it defeat him, Aharon learned to live in his imagination and became stronger in ways you wouldn't think possible. After miserable years of this constrained existence, thanks to the tears and prayers and struggles of his devoted mother, he defies the odds and regains mobility and returns home (one of 3 survivors, out of the 2000 in Israel struck with polio of that degree of severity! I had no idea how badly the polio epidemic struck Israel, indeed I had no idea it had at all.)
He still faces harsh bullying, verbal and physical, a severe stuttering problem that keeps him cut off from the world, but he beats all the odds time after time and goes through incredible struggles with grit and persistence. The speech therapist is harsh and kind of a jerk- doesn't stop him from going back again because he is determined to heal. His brother dies in army service in the war of Attrition- he and his family are deeply devastated, but he still joins the army in a dangerous position in the Yom Kippur war even though his polio left him with an exemption but he wants to prove to himself that he can defend his country. (Disliked the cop-out disclaimer pandering to chareidim who think army service is automatically evil- don't apologize for a decision you are not ashamed of, and clearly think was the right thing to do. I wonder if it was the same in the hebrew and english editions of this book.)
In the end, Margalit gets married, recovers to the point were he can live a basically normal life and raises a beautiful family- only to be struck again by disaster- cancer. not once but three times.
And still he fights! Like a crazy man. (I mean actually crazy, I kept shaking my head as I read, like, who DOES this stuff. It was intense!)
I learned something new about the meaning of faith, hope, and strength. Margalit balances trust in God with fighting for his life with all his efforts and strength. This is the dichotomy that we debate in philosophy classes yet this man literally lives it and shows you how it works in practice. The Jewish concept of "bitachon" makes a lot more sense to me now.
This book didn't resolve for me another question I've been grappling with, but rather threw it into sharper relief: Judaism's view on obedience to rabbinic authorities and how deeply that extends into our lives. People who profess to live entirely in accordance with the dictates of our sages sometimes are deluding themselves by their lack of consideration to logical inconsistencies in their own choices of when to listen to who, a truth I've started to pick up on (thanks a whole lot, Rabbi Slifkin's blog) and Margalit's father is a prime example. He will stick to his traditions NO MATTER WHAT in many cases (sending his son to a random chassidish school because the rebbe said so! without thinking about if it fits his son's needs!?) and yet he is active in the frum-moshavnik political party for the Knesset elections- against the strictures of the Satmar rebbe who he otherwise follows (and similar examples). He picks and chooses, clearly, but talks as if his traditions are unchanging. He's not alone in that, in the Jewish world, and I remain confused about the topic. I have Daniel Eidenson's Daas Torah: Source Book I guess I should actually try reading it.
Also I learned about the history of what life was like in Israel in the early scarcity years in small town settlements (stupid government throwing a bunch of new Morrocan immigrants who resent Ashkenazi dominance into a farming setttlement of Hungarian Holocaust survivors with no support or mediation systems between the parties...how did you think that was going to go).
Read this book. Appreciate faith. Appreciate persistence and people who overcome their life obstacles. Appreciate life.
January 18, 2016
It was just a few weeks ago that I declared G-d Winked the best frum book I'd ever read, but it's just been topped by this extraordinary memoir. In G-d Winked, Sara Yoheved Rigler said that using life's challenges as a springboard to help others leads to spiritual greatness. In this book, Aharon Margolit tells the story of how he did just that. A victim of the polio epidemic of the 1950's, he spent his early childhood motionless, speechless (due to trauma, he was mute), and completely at the mercy of his doctors and caregivers in the institution where he lived. In his teens and twenties, he struggled to learn to walk and then to talk. He went to yeshiva, got married, and became a successful businessman. By the time he was in his 50's, already a father and grandfather, he was diagnosed with cancer. But after all that he'd been through, he was ready for the fight.
The contrast between Mr. Margolit's childhood in institutional care and his adult bouts (yes, plural) with cancer is both stark and amazing. He was the most informed, involved, and argumentative patient I've ever heard of, but you can see why his childhood experiences would lead him to be that way. He says that no patient should ever act as though he lost his intelligence at the hospital door and cede all decisions to the doctors' judgment. But his spiritual greatness shone through even more in the way he treated his fellow patients. He understood that to really reach out to them in a meaningful way, he had to be one of them. In other words, he accepted the spiritual mission of his illnesses.
Now how many of us would do that? I suspect that Mr. Margolit would say that we all have the power within us if we choose to use it. May Hashem spare us all from the dreaded diseases he faced, but may we all learn from his strength.
The contrast between Mr. Margolit's childhood in institutional care and his adult bouts (yes, plural) with cancer is both stark and amazing. He was the most informed, involved, and argumentative patient I've ever heard of, but you can see why his childhood experiences would lead him to be that way. He says that no patient should ever act as though he lost his intelligence at the hospital door and cede all decisions to the doctors' judgment. But his spiritual greatness shone through even more in the way he treated his fellow patients. He understood that to really reach out to them in a meaningful way, he had to be one of them. In other words, he accepted the spiritual mission of his illnesses.
Now how many of us would do that? I suspect that Mr. Margolit would say that we all have the power within us if we choose to use it. May Hashem spare us all from the dreaded diseases he faced, but may we all learn from his strength.
April 7, 2016
So inspiring. It's a little hard to read, in that the author intersperses a lot of Yiddish and Hebrew into his narrative, and the glossary in the back has only a fraction of those words. But as a message on overcoming what seemed to be unbelievable odds, it is awe-inspiring. His wisdom and compassion is truly beautiful, giving words to those who might be suffering from disabilities and to those who encounter people who are "disabled." It speaks to everyone.
August 6, 2020
Brilliant just brilliant
October 22, 2023
A very inspirational book. It has some interesting stories but it was kind of repetitive. I like it when he explained all the medical stuff a lot.
November 7, 2016
A remarkable book by a remarkable man. Aharon Margalit tells his story factually and carefully without glossing over the difficult, painful parts of his life. This is an uplifting book that will leave the reader satisfied.
June 6, 2014
Life changing!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews