Just because the Rickmans’ 16-year-old son was sick, there was no cause for worry. Surely Naftoli would be back to himself by tomorrow or the next day at most. Except that he wasn’t. With each day Naftoli’s condition deteriorated, until his parents were concerned enough to call an ambulance. No one could have imagined that this young, formerly strong boy would never make it back home. The doctors were stumped. They shrugged their shoulders and said, “He is the sickest child on the ward, but we don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
Naftoli had always towered over his father. How painful it was for his parents to watch as he became weaker and weaker until he was niftar. It is now 3+ years later, but the pain of that loss is still so intense. Sometimes it can feel as if a fire is burning around Rabbi Rickman’s heart. He wants his son back. Can you blame him?
Yet his life is a lesson in emunah and how to go forward despite the pain. Rabbi Rickman shares, “The pain is always in my heart. It is something I got used to. But we must go forward. We must because this is what Hashem wants from us.”
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