Affairs of the Heart is the title of a recently published book written by one of Israel’s most renowned cardiologists.
Mervyn S. Gotsman is his name, but he is better known as “the Professor” by all who know him. There is a psalm we recite every Shabbat that encapsulates who I think the Professor is.
The last few lines of Psalm 92 read, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree and grow tall like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the Lord’s House, they blossom in God’s courtyards. They still bear fruit in old age and stay vigorous and fresh, proclaiming that the Lord is upright: He is my Rock in whom there is no wrong.”
These eternal words written by King David describe my dear friend Dr. Mervyn S. Gotsman, who is now approaching his 90th birthday.
I have been privileged to know the Professor for many years, and when he published Affairs of the Heart, I felt that his memories and story needed to be told. The Professor was even involved in the world’s first heart transplant, performed by Dr. Christiaan Bernard, in Capetown, South Africa.
It is not every day that one gets to meet such a great celebrity, but when you get to know the Professor, he is incredibly humble. Considering all that he has accomplished in his life, it is amazing that he is still looking ahead to learn and gain more knowledge and wisdom as he approaches his 90th birthday.
I first met the Professor in a Daf Yomi (daily Talmud) class at the Yeshurun Central Synagogue in Jerusalem. The Professor would sit in a class of about 30 people, where we would learn a page of Talmud daily. He would mostly sit silently like the rest of us.
However, there came a time when the rabbi who taught the class was not there. The Professor got up and gave the class himself without any preparation. It was at this point that I was told who this learned man actually was. We were in the presence of a man of great renown.
The Professor took a liking to me and invited me to his home to learn with him. I was so impressed by the number of computers he had lined up on his desk, with multiple pages of learning materials to study from. He proudly showed me his scrapbook, which contained many articles written about him, especially about the first heart transplant for which he did the preparatory work with Dr. Bernard.
I was so grateful to him for bringing me into his inner circle. He helped elevate the Daf Yomi class to a new level with his pioneering learning techniques. In addition to the excellent teaching of Rabbi Shmuel Herschler, the Professor’s innovations made the class even more interesting.
‘A nice Jewish boy’
As the years went by and his health was challenged, I saw less of the Professor except when we met at Shabbat services at our local synagogue. Then, one day, I saw him sitting outside with his new book, Affairs of the Heart, and I told him that people should know about him and his great accomplishments.
We met on several occasions in his apartment to review his life story. The Professor always greeted me with a smile, asking, “So, how is the good Lord treating you today?” His gentleness and soft-spoken manner are hallmarks of his character, but his greatness always shone through his humble demeanor.
His book begins with a preface stating, “This is the story of a nice Jewish boy from a simple family in a small town in South Africa who distinguishes himself at school and then continues to become a physician, almost by chance.”
The “nice Jewish boy” part of the story is central to what has made him the very special doctor he became. This “nice Jewish boy” was the head of Hadassah-University Medical Center’s Department of Cardiology for almost 30 years, fulfilling his dream of making aliyah, to the place where he feels most at home.
He built a top-tier cardiac center at Hadassah, which is now recognized as one of the best cardiac units in the world. He treated people from all walks of life, often without payment. Besides these simple folks, he treated presidents and prime ministers, including one of his most celebrated patients, Menachem Begin.
He was Begin’s private physician, and he accompanied him all over the world. He said Begin was an easy patient who listened very carefully to his advice and was always very polite. Accompanying Begin on his trip to the United States to visit president Jimmy Carter was so exciting to him, this “nice Jewish boy” from South Africa.
The Professor always returns to his humble roots, even though he is a world-renowned cardiologist with such major accomplishments. When visiting with the Professor, I would marvel at his collection of Jewish books, which dominates his library. He had every new book that came out – in both English and Hebrew – and confessed to me that being unable to resist buying all these books was his biggest vice.
Besides Jewish books, there were, of course, his medical books. The Professor would look with love at each page and try to explain to me the workings of the heart. He would tell me with delight about all the doctors listed in these encyclopedic books who were his students and who are now heads of their departments of cardiology in Israel and around the world.
Begin’s personal physician
The Professor’s days with Menachem Begin were historic. He was at his side at the signing of the historic Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. A headline in the Maariv newspaper asked, “What was the physician doing at the meeting?” Those trips with the prime minister cemented his relationship with him and his staff.
The Professor shared many intimate moments with Begin, such as the funeral of Anwar Sadat. In all his travels with the leader, they made sure to keep Shabbat.
There was once an incident when the prime minister went into cardiogenic shock at a state dinner at the King David Hotel with then-president Francois Mitterrand of France. The Professor felt justified in treating Begin, the leader of the country, in the hotel room instead of transporting him to the hospital. This decision probably saved Begin’s life, but the press castigated Dr. Gotsman unmercifully.
In reading the Professor’s account of the event, I was so impressed by the way he described it in such poetic language that I feel it is worthwhile to quote it here to show how this man of science views his world.
“Sunrise in Jerusalem is a dramatic event. The first glow of daylight peeked over the Old City walls at 6 a.m., and the bright ball of the sun appeared with an orange hue and filled the Valley of Hinnom with morning light. I felt the time had come to wake Begin for his morning coffee and newspapers.”
This is the language of a man imbued with a sensitivity for the beauty of life and a love of Jerusalem, the city he lived in.
He recalled that one of the toughest tasks he had to undertake was breaking the news of the death of Begin’s wife, Aliza, to the prime minister. He said he had never seen such profound mourning and grief. They were a couple that was truly in love, and Begin never quite recovered from his wife’s death. The Professor was a constant companion to the prime minister after Aliza’s death, but there was very little conversation between them.
The Professor always considered himself a personal physician to his patients and lived with them through their good times and bad times. Treating Begin, he confessed, cemented his reputation as one of the leading cardiologists in Israel, and he was asked to treat other public figures, such as ministers, presidents, and other VIPs.
An award-worthy career
One of the Professor’s crowning achievements was when he was presented with the Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem award in 2007, given to only a few individuals who have contributed significantly to the capital city. He was quoted as saying, “I regard myself as Gotsman from Jerusalem.”
As distinguished and renowned as he is, the Professor thinks back to the days when he was a country doctor in Rhodesia, where he learned how to treat patients as people rather than diseases. He was a hands-on physician, unlike many of the impersonal physicians of today.
One of the many contributions to the Department of Cardiology that Prof. Gotsman established was Israel’s first digital catheterization lab. He also initiated the idea of treating acute heart attacks and opening clogged arteries in the Magen David Adom ambulance or at home even before the patient reached the hospital. One of the Professor’s beloved students at MDA was Dr. David Applebaum, who was killed in a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem in 2003.
Dr. Gotsman considers himself an interventional cardiologist, the kind who diagnoses and treats with drugs and minimally invasive angioplasties without surgery. He performed over 2,000 angioplasties a year. He loved doing clinical research and published more than 500 papers.
Teaching and education are the loves of his life, and they extend into his retirement years. He taught for four years in Clalit Health Services clinics, setting up teaching programs on cardiology for general practitioners throughout the country.
He has also become a dedicated Talmud scholar, and opens his home to all who want to learn with him. He says the achievement he is most proud of is his study of all 37 tractates of the Talmud – one page a day over a cycle of seven and a half years, which he completed three times.
Prof. Gotsman wrote in a special issue of the Journal of the Israel Heart Society published in his honor in 2003, “Fifty years of medicine and 30 years at Hadassah has taught me many lessons: care for patients and not diseases, expert medical care for all patients, scrupulous medical honesty and the search for truth in medical research, understanding and introducing new developments and, most of all, disregard for large income.”
He also wrote that patient care occupied most of his time, and his only regret is that he wished he would have spent more time with his wife and his five wonderful children.
It has been a great privilege to have spent so much time with this incredible man. He has saved and enriched so many lives, and his love for Torah and Eretz Yisrael has had a profound effect on me. I highly recommend reading Affairs of the Heart.
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