Beliefnet’s “Ask the Rabbi” columnist Rabbi David Wolpe underwent brain surgery this fall. He shares what he learned from life’s dark side.

“I heard the rabbi is dying of brain cancer.” That was the word flying around the synagogue. I should have expected it. Rumours were rife, and they were uncomfortably close to the truth. Last October 23, I was speaking at the University of Pennsylvania, to inaugurate the new Hillel building on campus. At dinner, I sat beside my parents. As I spoke, I felt a little strange, nervous and hot. I had trouble keeping to my train of thought. It occurred to me that I was coming down with a cold. As I sat down after my speech, my father asked, “Is there anything wrong?” “No,” I said, and that is the last thing I remember.

Almost immediately, I had a violent seizure. The seizure would not stop until in the ambulance, I was administered large doses of drugs intravenously.

I was lucky. Not only were there several doctors present, but as one of them told me later, had I been swimming, driving or in the bath, I would likely not have survived.

I do not remember anything of the seizure. Mercifully, I was unconscious.

From the moment I woke up in the University of Pennsylvania hospital and for the next few days, I was confused. I asked the same questions over and over. I saw people and a day later forgot that I had seen them.

The CT scan showed nothing, but when we returned from Philadelphia, my wife took me for an MRI. Now with the more precise images, the radiologist told us there was “an area of concern.” The following day, we were told I was to have surgery to remove a lesion in my brain. — Beliefnet.com