A Carload of Faith
Our family physician, Dr. Bismuth, was witness to Hashem’s salvation with his own two eyes. He has documentation proving its veracity. This is his tale.
When he bought a new car, he used it to drive to the Torah shiur which I delivered not far from his house. Once, on his way home, an oncoming vehicle came careening down the street and smashed into him. His car was beyond repair, but Dr. Bismuth himself emerged unharmed. When he recovered from his frightful experience, the good doctor offered a prayer of thanksgiving to Hashem for his salvation.
But he felt bad over the damage to the new car, which he had hardly used. “Ribbono shel Olam,” he turned heavenward, “I was returning from a shiur of Rabbeinu David Chananya Pinto, grandson of the tzaddik and miracle-worker, Rabbi Chaim Pinto. How could my new car have sustained such a blow just then? I was involved in a mitzvah. How could You allow such a thing?”
The next morning, Dr. Bismuth went to the place where he had left his crushed car, in order to meet the tow truck which had been called to tow it away. He looked all over, but could not find his car. He immediately called his wife and asked her to help him find the elusive vehicle. But his wife shocked him with her refusal, insisting that she had seen their car in the family driveway, whole and shiny and new. It showed no signs whatsoever of any sort of damage.
Dr. Bismuth did not take his wife’s word for it and went to check it out himself. The car was standing in his driveway, whole and shiny, without even a scratch. The doctor nearly fell in a faint in the face of this revealed miracle. Suddenly, he remembered the prayer he had put forth from the depths of his heart, only hours earlier. He understood that it was the merit of the tzaddik, Rabbi Chaim Pinto, which had evoked such a turnabout. After calming down, Dr. Bismuth related to me all of the events from the accident until the car’s renewal. When he finished his narrative, he noticed my astonishment. How could such a thing happen? It seemed more like the stuff of dreams, or maybe his mind had become hazy?
“If the Rav does not believe my story, how am I to accept the miracles recorded in the Torah, or those we hear daily about the power of the tzaddikim? You taught us that the power of prayer and the merit of tzaddikim can change the course of nature!”
When I heard these words, I got up and kissed the doctor on his forehead. His story is one of an amazing level of faith. One must be a true believer in the merit of the tzaddikim in order to hear such a story and become strengthened by it.
