He was only getting worse, until he started eating better

It was the sort of story that could have been labeled “Medical Mystery,” tied up with a neat little diagnosis bow, and packed away with other cautionary tales. But Naama Weiss took caring for her husband’s health one step further, and today their family of 12 eats an entirely plant-based diet — Shabbos and Yom Tov included

Almost a decade ago, Levi Weiss was roughhousing with his kids on the couch when he suddenly let out a moan of pain.

It was his knee.

It was also Rosh Hashanah, but Levi stayed on the couch the rest of the Yom Tov, icing his knee and biting his tongue to keep from yelling out in pain. The Weisses were living in Ramat Eshkol, far away from family, juggling three little ones under the age of three, and they felt alone and frightened in the face of the unknown. On Motzaei Yom Tov, they reached out to Benny Fisher, the medical askan. Benny pulled some strings and got them an appointment for the following day with the head of the orthopedic department at Har Hatzofim hospital.

When the pompous doctor gave Levi’s knee a cursory glance and declared it an old basketball injury, they accepted it without question. And thus followed some of the most challenging years of the Weisses’ life. Over the next decade, Levi had flare-ups constantly. Mostly it was in his knee, sometimes his ankle, and during one fateful incident, his toe. The pain was so bad he would sit a foot away from the table to ensure none of the little kids would accidentally kick him in the leg.

“So many times,” Naama admits, “I felt entirely alone. Physically, like when he couldn’t attend shul on Simchas Torah because of a flare-up, and my kids were begging neighbors to throw them in the air during Moshe Emes, but also emotionally. Levi was the one in agony, but I felt drained, emotionally exhausted by his pain. Then there was the kidney stones episode, which we didn’t realize was related to all his other ‘injuries.’

“I needed to renew my American driver’s license, and it worked out that I’d be going to the US myself to do so… and to have a much-needed vacation. It was the first (and last!) time I’d be going by myself, and I was really looking forward to it. Then Levi walked in from shul Shabbos morning and said, ‘I think I’m having kidney stones.’ He’d actually researched kidney stones recently for a friend and recognized the signs. His chavrusa took him down to the Shabbos clinic to receive a cortisone shot for the pain, but he was still in agony. I watched my trip to America fizzle away before my eyes, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle the disappointment. That’s when Levi remembered something from his research: If you drink an entire bottle of Coke in one sitting, Coke acidifies the blood, which dissolves kidney stones in 80 percent of cases. We’re into healthy eating and don’t drink Coke — like ever — but my brother had been at our house a few weeks before, and we’d bought a few bottles in his honor. I grabbed the remaining bottle, Levi sat down, and I handed him cup after cup. And the stones actually left his body. And I was able to go and renew my license and my spirits.”