A soft rustling sound was made by Mamel's full length skirt
swishing about as she walked up the stone path to her front
door.
Mamel was nobody's mother. That was just her name. Fifty
years ago, she had been given that name, with the divine
inspiration each parent receives upon naming their child.
And yet, Mamel was everybody's Mama. Everyone within
a few kilometers' radius knew that whenever you wanted to
know what to do about certain ailments, you naturally turned
to her. Mamel was well versed in herbs and their healing
properties. She also knew which foods helped for specific
problems. Why people were all but ignoring the wonderful
ability we have to heal ourselves, without the aid of some
pharmaceutical brand name, sometimes right on our kitchen
shelf -- and much cheaper, was beyond her.
Mamel turned the key in the lock and gently pushed the door
open. She deeply inhaled the pungent smells of various
herbal concoctions she associated with the smells of home.
While she busied herself packing away her latest purchases
at the health food store, the phone rang. It was Mrs. Green
from the apartment building on the left.
Yanki had a red eye and she wanted to know if there was
anything natural that would heal it. "Yes, come over right
away and I'll show you how to apply the warm milk
treatment." Mamel filled the kettle with water and set it to
boil in anticipation of Yanki and his red eye.
While the kettle whistled, Mamel filled a glass halfway with
the boiling water. She then poured some milk into a
disposable plastic cup which she placed inside the glass of
boiling water. With the milk was warming, Mamel went about
watering her plants which were cascading down from various
pots hanging on both sides of her windows. The wind chimes
tinkled and the curtains danced in delight, reveling in the
refreshing breeze.
The doorbell rang and Yanki and his mother were duly
welcomed into the country style kitchen. Depending on which
way you looked at it, Mamel's home was either as refreshing
as an oasis in the desert, or as incongruous as a corn field
in the middle of the city. It was a one level little house
located in the middle of a high rise neighborhood in
Yerusholayim, which time had passed by since she had refused
all offers to sell. To get to the front door, you walked
through a gate, then on a winding stone path surrounded by
overgrown trees and bushes, some resembling haphazard weeds,
who, to the unitiated, looked like a hodge podge melange of
careless Nature. To Mamel, however, each bush, shrub and
tree was in the exact position that was best for optimal
growth. And the roughly cobbled stone path was there for the
reflexological exercise it provided her `clients' and
friends every time they walked on it.
"Hello, Yanki," she said, smiling at her junior visitor
first.
"We're going to give your eye a warm milk bath. I'm going to
dip this piece of cotton into the milk and you touch it,
here on the top side, to feel if it's not too hot."
A bashful smile from Yanki as he touched the soaked wad was
his assent that it was not too hot. Leaving the decision up
to him was Mamel's psychological method of involving the
patient in his own healing, which was so important.
"Now we place this on your eye. Hold it there until all of
the sand in the timer runs down." A huge timer, another
important accessory to Mamel's holistic approach to children
to get their minds off their aches, was placed on the table
near Yanki, who watched it with keen interest with his
unaffected eye.
"Mrs. Green, Yanki should have these milk baths for his eye
at least three times today and tomorrow. By then, his eye
should be completely better. Of course, if it isn't, you'll
have to go to your doctor."
Mrs. Green thanked Mamel and headed for the door. Yanki
tripped and some liquid in a little potpouri pot on the
floor spilled out.
"That smells like vinegar. What do you use that for, Mamel?"
Mrs. Green was fascinated by everything that Mamel did. She
knew that there was always an interesting reason behind
it.
"Oh, it's an excellent mosquito repellent. If you keep a cup
of vinegar near each window, you will probably be bite free.
And it's so cheap, too."
As Mrs. Green and Yanki waved good-bye following their
thanks, the phone rang again.
It was Baila Sommers calling with good news, but she needed
advice, as well. Her red blood count was low.
"Is there anything I can do to get it up quickly? I need all
the strength I can muster for the nights and days ahead."
"Oh, yes! As a matter of fact, it will be excellent for your
milk, as well."
Mamel then explained to Baila how she should juice a whole
head of lettuce and drink the contents, to be repeated for
four consecutive days. "Please G-d, you will feel much
better and stronger."
When the phone rang again, Mamel instinctively knew it was
Sheila! And she was right. Even before Mamel finished
enunciating her "Hello" with the warmth she tried to convey
each time, the voice on the other side was already
enumerating aches and pains in a familiar whining voice.
"You must go to the dentist for a toothache, Sheila. There
are things to take for temporary relief but nothing I can
recommend that will fill your cavity," Mamel said firmly.
"But you don't understand. I want to do these things
naturally. That's why I'm asking you. By the way, I just
read that eating raisins is good for bronchitis. I made sure
to eat 48 raisins three times a day, but the last time I ran
out and only had 40. Do you think there might be some
connection? Anyway, don't you always preach that man has to
help himself?"
She wouldn't let up. For a whole week her knee had been
acting up even after Mamel's ministrations, and she refused
to expose herself to harmful x-rays. Which was one reason
why she didn't go to dentists, either. It was anyone's guess
if Sheila enjoyed feeling bad so that she'd have what to
kvetch about.
Mamel knew that Sheila was sitting in the semi-dark right
now because she wanted to use only natural light. Now, at
dusk, she refrained from turning on the light until the last
drop of sunlight had disappeared from the horizon. Even when
it was night according to Rabbenu Tam, Sheila only turned on
the light when there was absolutely no choice. She usually
lit her aromatic candles made from beeswax because they were
more natural. Anyone who was interested, and even people who
weren't, were given lectures on why people living in Eretz
Yisroel should drink only goat's milk and sweeten their food
with honey. Not the regular bee honey, even though it might
be natural, but date honey, which was more authentic. Mamel
could just picture her now, wrapped up in an afghan:
sweaters were too modern, reading with a big magnifying
glass as opposed to eye glasses.
When Sheila had begun cooking macrobiotics, her neighbors
stopped their occasional friendly visits, even though they
had considered that a chessed. It was bad enough to
put up with her accounts of aches and pains, and her other
idiosyncrasies, but when eating cake became a sin, they just
kept away. The first time Sheila offered them seaweed, and
insisted on them trying some, instead of her rock-hard whole
wheat health cookies, they thought she was playing some kind
of joke. But all too soon, they realized she was sincerely
trying to convince them to eat the green slimy stuff for
their own good.
Until today, Mamel never tried talking about nature versus
manmade, even though she was considered the local expert on
the former. She thought it would be a waste of time. But
now, after an entire week of hearing about various aches and
pains, perhaps very legitimate, which were being neglected,
she felt it was her duty to set Sheila straight.
"Sheila," she began hesitantly, "I want you to hear
something new." She remembered that on Sheila's refrigerator
there was a magnet that read, "Hear something new; it's good
for you." Which somehow also fitted into Sheila's approach
to life, of trying different remedies and picking up
information on novel approaches to living a natural life.
"It's true that Hashem made such a wonderful world with many
things built-in to help us for our aches and pains. Did it
ever occur to you, though, that modern inventions and
medicines also originated with them? Hashem gave man the
power and imagination to come up with all of these things.
He tuned Man in, so to speak, at different times in history,
to these discoveries and inventions, like penicillin, in its
time. When one thing doesn't help, it's time to try
something new. I'm not saying that you should forget about
natural methods and resources. I'd be the last to say that,
you know. But at times, we have to use conventional methods
as well. And who's to say that candles are less man-made
than a light bulb?"
"Hmmm. I never thought about that," Sheila admitted
thoughtfully. Mamel could feel that she had struck a chord
in the always-ready-to-try-something-new side of Sheila.
"You may be right. You know, it just occurred to me that
there may be a legitimate reason for that pharmacy next door
to the health food place. And you know, it is kind of
dark in here."
As she hung up the phone, Sheila switched on the light.
"Sure is much brighter around here," she said out loud. She
went next door to her neighbor to borrow an acamol for her
toothache and then called up the dentist to make an
appointment.
It took all of ten minutes (until it took effect) for a
grateful Sheila to thank Hashem for His miracles of modern
man made bounty.
