M

eir Tulkoff is accomplishing exactly what his rav advised him to, before  moving to Eretz Yisrael.

No, we don’t mean the fact that he wears one yellow sneaker and one turquoise sneaker to work. His rav definitely never told him he had to do anything like that. Nor are we referring to his colorful butterfly-patterned vest or his flowery hat. That’s only his stage get-up; most of the time he’s a black-hatter.

His rav told him there were only two reasons to make aliya: To learn more Torah and to do more chesed. And Hakadosh Baruch Hu, in a classic example of Hashgacha pratis, has placed him in a professional environment where he can distribute chesed in large doses while utilizing his G-d-given talents for being mesameach ha’briyos. Working side-by-side with physical therapists, doctors, and nurses, in the three short years since he made aliya from Baltimore, Meir, a.k.a. “Magic Michael” is making a real impact in his profession, and his many talents are in demand at hospitals all over Israel.

Meir performs what he calls “educational magic.” Some refer to it as “humor therapy” and others would call him a “clown doctor.” But Meir is no clown, as he takes great pains to point out to us when we made the rounds with him in the physical therapy ward of Alyn Hospital in Jerusalem. The magic tricks, the balloons he blows up and twists into funny shapes, and the entertainment he provides is the surface glitter, the chitzonius. The pnimius of his work is chesed and bikur cholim. A superficial look at Meir’s get-up – the colorful clothing, the bag of balloons, and the violin case with his bag of tricks – would give some the conception that he is primarily an entertainer. That is exactly the notion that he would like to put to rest.

“I’m forever fighting and pointing out that I am not a clown at the hospital. Anyone, even the most truly introverted can stub his toe in front of kids and get a laugh. That’s not what I’m trying to do. I am a medical magician trying to achieve the goals that the doctors and nurses are obligating me to reach. I have to think of ways to apply what I have in my bag of tricks to reach those goals.”

LAUGHTER AS MEDICINE

The concept of humor therapy is not new. Everyone who ever opened the Reader’s Digest knows the old saying "Laughter is the Best Medicine." But what is new is Meir’s approach to it and how he has incorporated himself into Alyn’s therapeutic team, explains Dr. Eliezer Be’eri, Director of Alyn’s Respiratory Rehabilitation Unit. Dr. Be’eri told us that for them, “Magic Michael” is just what the doctor ordered.

“I was looking for somebody to come and join us at Alyn as a humor therapist. We wanted somebody who would be able to use magic and clowning as a therapeutic tool, not just to entertain and relieve boredom. We also wanted to integrate that person into our therapy and occupational sessions to increase our patients’ overall motivation and cooperation,” Dr. Be’eri said.

We watched this principle in action as a physical therapist dealt with a three-year-old boy undergoing rehabilitation after suffering severe burns in a household accident. In this particular exercise, the therapist was trying to get the toddler to sit with his legs extended, in order to stretch his skin and keep him from losing flexibility in his limbs. Getting a little boy to sit still for any length of time isn’t easy under most circumstances, but in this case, with multiple scars all over his little legs, it’s also quite painful.

So Magic Michael reaches into his bag of balloons, blows them up with his pump and in a matter of seconds, he has made a fishing rod, complete with hook, line, and sinker, and a fish caught on the hook.

“Look, Yehuda, it’s a gefilte fish!” Magic Michael exclaims.

The little patient is captivated. He remains in his sitting position, for just as long as the therapist requires. Then, as part of his therapy, Yehuda is told to stand and reach for the “fish.” This helps him with his motor coordination. He is so happy with his gefilte fish that he runs back and forth down the hall, between his therapist and his grandmother who accompanied him that day to therapy. Without Magic Michael on hand, there is no telling if the little boy would have been cooperative or if he would have accomplished anything that day.

“That’s it,” says the therapist, satisfied with the results. “Michael, todah raba, you really helped us.”

Dr. Be’eri said this case is a perfect example of how valuable Meir’s work is:

“He’s excellent and we have definitely seen kids brought to do things that we hadn’t succeeded in doing yet.”

This young burn victim Meir helped was just one of 24 patients on his list which he receives, as soon as he arrives at the hospital. The list also contains rehabilitation goals that he is there to help them accomplish. He returns to the main therapy room, in constant motion as the youngsters clamor for his attention. He pays attention and showers compassion on everyone, even those not on his list, yet he maintains his discipline and takes care of his duties. It’s no different from a doctor making his rounds but when it comes to “bedside” manner, Meir certainly has most doctors beat, hands-down.

“The kids that come to us have all forms of physical disabilities and we have to motivate them,” Dr. Be’eri explains. “Michael helps us with all of that. He adds a lot of value for the patients and his work is of general value for everybody as well. It’s motivating to see someone who enjoys his work and it has an impact on our overall attitude. Sometimes, our work can be depressing and difficult and it’s important to have someone who has a positive attitude.”

Alyn is Israel’s only pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation center. Despite its location overlooking the lush-green mountains of southwest Jerusalem, it’s not an easy place to wear a smile. Alyn provides treatment mainly to young people suffering from congenital and inherited diseases, head trauma, cancer and burns, and injuries sustained in accidents. Yet when Magic Michael enters the physical therapy room, a respirator ward, or even walks the hallways or enters an elevator, he engages each and every patient. Even the crustiest Israeli sabra is hard-pressed to hold back a grin.

RELATING TO EVERY CHILD

“Matai ata ba elai?” – (When are you coming to see me?) asks a very handsome boy of  around nine years old, when he sees Magic Michael in the hallway. He tells him his room number and reminds him again to come up soon.

An instant later, a nurse wheels another boy past Meir, on his way to therapy. As soon as he sees Magic Michael, he starts clapping his hands in glee. Magic Michael has his rounds to make, but he doesn’t hesitate to take a minute and blow up a balloon and twist it into a funny shape and give it to the boy to make him happy while he waits his turn.

It is obvious that Meir has built strong relationships with the children, during his weekly visits. Perhaps those ties are strongest at Dana Children’s Hospital in Tel Aviv, where he visits the oncology ward once a week.

“Picture this little kid in oncology and the doctors have to insert a plastic unit into his chest to administer the chemotherapy. In a child that small, it’s a very painful thing,” Meir says.

The ward’s educational coordinator, Etty Tamuz said Magic Michael is a big morale booster in a place where morale is understandably at a nadir. “The children are here for such a long time and anything he can do to make them forget what they’re here for is a big help. Michael will sit by the children during their treatment. They  concentrate on him and less on their pain.”

During the course of his work, Meir said he has had to develop the sensitivity to know when to approach a patient and when not to approach. “Sometimes, I’m sitting in ICU next to a child that just came out of a tumor removal surgery on his brain and you might think the parents will ask me, ‘What are you doing here?’ but that never happens. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given me the gift to approach this human being and I’m there for a purpose, so from a distance, I’ll raise my hand, and ask the child’s name and I wait to see if the parents respond. If they do, I’ll walk closer and stand right next to them and you can feel the weight come off of their shoulders, just releasing an incredible amount of stress.

“If they do wave me off, I don’t come in. Sometimes, I’ll approach a room and adults will see me and they’ll say, ‘There are no children here.’ I’ll tell them, ‘I never left my childhood. That’s dangerous. Have you?’ They usually let me in and I entertain them a little bit.”

MAGIC AND MARKETING GO TOGETHER

Meir doesn’t like to say he was a born entertainer, but he did get started in the magic business at an early age, in his native Baltimore. At age 11, he saw a magic show in elementary school. “Me and my best buddy were excited by that. Afterward, we went to the library and gobbled up every book on magic. By age 12, I was performing birthday shows in local hospitals in Baltimore.”

For the most part, he put the performing career on ice during his teenage and college years, but he would still attend magic conventions, from time to time. He still goes to them, often as an invited lecturer.

While the performances remained a hobby, Meir earned a degree in business administration and marketing, and gave sales presentations in a number of fields, including investments, insurance, food, and manufacturing. He was also an independent marketing representative and at one point owned a small medical sales business.

Ten years ago, Meir decided to meld this marketing and entertaining expertise with the magic, and developed a program that he performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The facility is so large that not every child could fit in the room with him, so it was beamed on closed circuit television to specific rooms. The program was such a success that afterwards, the hospital asked him to visit individual children at their bedsides. “I really felt this was making a difference. I was doing more than just making a kid laugh.”

He applied the same winning formula to presentations on safety; recycling and the environment; and a healthy living program. His educational programs were approved by the Baltimore County Board of Education. Baltimore Magazine voted him Baltimore’s Best Kid’s Entertainer in 1996 and Baltimore’s Best Magician in 1998. He said one of the things he was proudest of was his stint as president of the Baltimore chapter of the Society of American Magicians, founded by Houdini in 1902.

While you might think it would be difficult to design award-winning programs, on one hand for children and on the other hand for corporate clients, Meir had the knack.

“I never thought it was worthwhile to get up there and be silly and just entertain the crowds. That’s the reason why I had corporate clients in the US. They realized I wasn’t just some clown. My most popular programs in the US were my Jewish pride programs, on the chagim and Shabbos. In a 35-minute performance, I could get across Judaism even in front of Reform nursery schools or Jewish summer camps for the nonobservant.”

Married with six children, the youngest of whom was born in Israel, the Tulkoffs lived in Baltimore for 11 years. They were affiliated mainly with Rav Moshe Heinemann’s Agudath Yisrael and also Rabbi Menachem Goldberger of Tiferes Yisroel and the Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion Congregation.

Before that, the Tulkoffs had lived for three years in Migdal Ha’emek when Rabbi Bulman, ztz”l, was rabbi of its Kiryat Nachliel community. In 1990, the Tulkoffs moved back to America to earn enough money to repay their school loans, but they always knew that one day they were going to come back to Eretz Yisrael.

That day finally arrived. But before making the big move, they sought rabbinical advice from Rav Naftali Neuberger of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel. “Rav Neuberger heard us list where we had looked and what we thought were the benefits and drawbacks of each place. That’s when he told us you only go to live in Eretz Yisrael for two reasons: To learn more Torah and to be involved in more chesed.

The Tulkoffs chose Rechovot, on Rabbi Bulman’s recommendation and also because they found suitable schooling there for their children, a kehilla for themselves at Beit Chatam run by Rav Dovid Stein, plus it was an easy commute to all of the Tel Aviv area major hospitals, where Meir was hoping he would be able to perform.

The conventional wisdom for new immigrants coming to Israel is that if they were successful in their careers overseas, they should try to continue in them in Israel.

So Meir set his sights on the marketing field in Israel. “I thought I’d be straightening my tie and clearing my throat and helping Israeli firms market their goods overseas. I sent out probably 2,000 resumes and got very, very few phone calls.”

Obviously, Hashem had other plans for you.

 “We have, Baruch Hashem, acclimated very well, but what bigger zchus can there be than Hakadosh Baruch Hu saying, 'This is the kind of work I want you to be in.' Here I am being rewarded with parnassa and I help people in a way that I wasn’t able to in the US.”

But you received quite a bit of acclaim in Baltimore, as well?

“All of the places that I worked at in the US were wonderful, but it’s different here. The interaction is fantastic. I love to break people’s preconceived notions. Like when I show up at a hospital in Tel Aviv (before putting on his costume) in my black hat and suit. All the guards know me and ask, 'Hey, have you got a new joke for me?'”

As a performer who incorporates magic tricks into his routine, Michael has had to confront the issue of whether magical entertainment is permissible according to halacha.

“Almost ten years ago, I saw in a small article in a respected chareidi publication that some said magic was ossur l’gamrei. I read it and I was obviously very disturbed. I telephoned Rav Dovid Feinstein and I took it as a siman min haShamayim that he answered the phone himself. I asked him whether I needed to just put this all aside. Before I tell you what he said, let me tell you a related story.

“In 1995, we came to Israel to look into aliya and we were staying in Jerusalem. I saw an ad for a summer camp that I thought about sending my son to. It advertised swimming, sports, and magic. I said to him, 'This could be a problem." The next day, I was going to see Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg, anyway, so one of the questions I asked him was, ‘Can the rav tell me what’s the story with magicians in Eretz Yisrael?’ Lo and behold, he told me the exact same thing Rav Feinstein had told me.

Which was?

“First of all, at all of my performances, I have to make it clear to all of my audiences that there is no magic in the world, that everything is from Hakadosh Baruch Hu. I tell them that if you watch me carefully, and you think, you might even be able to figure out what I’m doing. I even teach them how to do one trick themselves".

Meir also gives a handout to his audiences that not only serves as a promotional piece, but also explains to them how they too can perform tricks.

“I myself feel a great hakaras hatov to the chachamim for this advice they have given me. I know there are those who paskin that illusion is ossur l’gamrei,, but as I understand it, that’s because there are performers out there conning people into thinking they have special powers.”

Watching Meir perform, one can see he does indeed have special powers, but he will be the first to tell you they are G-d-given. “I was always an innate 'people person' and I was, Baruch Hashem, able to develop those blessings from Him into what I do today."

TAKING THE NEXT STEP

What is the next phase of Meir’s new career?

“I would like to train others, with the methods that I have developed. There are classes here and there about people who want to be a clown and go visit hospitals. But there’s more to it than that.”

He also wants to make sure people who would go into this field are paid in a manner that doesn’t crimp hospitals' very tight budgets. “I don’t take money from the hospital budgets. All of my work is supported by donations from Jews overseas who want to support the kind of work I’m doing. The hospital budgets should be going to medical equipment and personnel.”

Just recently, Meir appeared at a seminar where he helped train nurses at Rebecca Sieff Hospital in Tzfas, an event both he and the hospital termed a major success.

“We talked about establishing bedside manner,” Meir said. “What it means and how it’s judged. I have a 90-minute lecture on how medical professionals should interact with their patients, no matter what their ages. It includes finding a way to open a conversation, how you try to make a child laugh in a proper way, and to build a relationship.

“I told them, 'I’m not here to teach you how to be a clown or an entertainer. I’m here to contribute to the occupation you’ve chosen already. And it doesn’t matter if you work with children, seniors, or in a dialysis ward.' I role-play with them and they’re laughing and learning, at the same time.”

The hospital’s course coordinator, Hannah Zafrir said her students were delighted with Meir’s presentation. “My students and I have seen umpteen lectures. I could tell they were really thrilled with what he was saying and they loved the ideas he was pointing out.”

Mrs. Zafrir said that being located in the Galilee, where the population is diverse, including Jews, Arabs, Druse, Ethiopians, and Russians, it is vital to be able to connect with the various cultures they represent. Magic Michael’s techniques, she said, is one way to bridge the gaps.

“When Michael came, it was a summation of a seminar that our third-year students had just finished. They presented different projects they had done for the seminar, in front of an audience of nurses from all over the region. So finishing it up with Michael’s lecture was nice, because he gave us another side of how you connect different cultures with a bit of humor and magic.”

After the presentation, the hospital wrote Meir a letter of thanks for his participation, which included several enthusiastic comments from participants. Perhaps the one that summed it up best said, “You are doing real avodas hakodesh.. We wish you well.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha Issue 19)