Brian Zionts-Bernstein keeps a small dreidel in his pocket at all times, not just at Hanukkah.
Each side of his traditional holiday toy is inscribed with Hebrew letters forming an acronym for nes gadol hayah poh, meaning “a great miracle happened here.”
The letters refer to the time more than 2,000 years ago in Israel when Judah the Maccabee and his followers reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. While only one day’s worth of oil was left to light the temple’s menorah, it lasted eight days.
But for Zionts-Bernstein, his wife Kym and their son Sam, the dreidel also symbolizes their own miracle, which happened here, in Pennsylvania, on the last night of Hanukkah three years ago.
“The first words I heard were ‘Brian, we have lungs for you,’ and I had trouble listening to it after that because I started crying and got very emotional.” — Brian Zionts-Bernstein
That’s when Zionts-Bernstein of Upper Saucon Township underwent a double lung transplant that saved his life.
The operation took place six years after he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an often-fatal disease that usually strikes people who are middle age and older.
IPF, as it is called, produces scar tissue, which cause the lungs to lose their elasticity, making it hard to get oxygen to the brain and other organs, and to remove carbon dioxide from the bloodstream.