“Courage” is an adjective people throw around with relative ease to describe people and decisions that are not really courageous:
- A politician who vouches for a bill that may cost him a few votes
- An athlete who makes a difficult play
- A comedian who tackles a taboo subject
But true courage means overcoming great fear and adversity, and coming through the other side not only intact but stronger.
That would make Moshe Arazi, a young husband and father from Israel living with Behcet’s Disease, a textbook example of courage.
Moshe’s disease is extreme and advanced. Over the last few years he’s fought a stomach-churning array of painful, life-threatening Behcet’s symptoms and other medical challenges like lesions in his stomach and intestines, colitis, and osteoporosis—any one of which would reduce most of us to tears.
The pain defied even the strongest medications doctors could prescribe, but Moshe in turn defied the pain and repeatedly defied doctors’ predictions that he was going to die at any moment. He credits his ability to survive to his strong faith—Moshe is Orthodox Jewish—and an equally strong and loving wife and family.
Perhaps because of Moshe’s love of faith and family, he has two seemingly contradictory beliefs that help move him forward: He is not afraid of death, but he very much wants to live.
This love of life and freedom from fear helped him embrace the risks of traveling from Israel to the United States for a risky surgery to fix a hole torn in his stomach from an earlier procedure.
After doctors at Cornell University in New York succeeded in fixing the hole, Moshe was transferred to Mount Sinai Hospital’s Behcet’s unit.
He has a long road ahead of him.
His Behcet’s caused paralysis, vascular inflammation, and other symptoms that will take some time to get under control, and success is by no means a guarantee.
But Moshe’s attitude in the face of adversity—which has made him something of a role model and celebrity back home—should serve him well. And his courage can serve as an inspiration to anyone facing their own fight with Behcet’s Disease.
