One year, after Yom Kippur, a pitiful woman came to see me. She had lost her entire family and suffered from additional problems. But materialistically speaking, she lacked nothing.
This woman had mystical leanings and dabbled in the hidden areas of the Torah, such as Kabbalah and the like. But instead of channeling her spiritual tendencies to Torah and mitzvah observance, she was drawn to Buddhism. She had never had a proper Jewish education to set her on the right path.
This woman went to India to satisfy her religious yearnings. According to protocol, she removed her shoes before the Buddha, immersed herself, and requested to be accepted to that religion.
That night, she had a dream. A tzaddik appeared to her and said, “Look at me. Have you ever heard of Elijah the Prophet? I am he, standing before you. Leave this defiled place immediately and return to your home and your heritage!”
The woman awoke in a cold sweat. The very next day, she took a plane out and came back home, physically and spiritually.
She told me that in the merit of her dream, she returned to Judaism. This year, she merited observing her first Yom Kippur as a true Jew.
She continued showing interest in Judaism and asked how to do complete teshuvah.
Of course, I showed her the path to teshuvah. I realized that her dream was a message from Above. Hashem was, so to speak, telling her, “My daughter, you are making a fatal mistake. I am the only G-d. Why do you bow to stone? Come, pray to me. Learn about your rich heritage and return to your Heavenly Father.”
This will be the goal of Eliyahu Hanavi, in the future, as the pasuk says (Malachi 3:24), “And he will return [to Hashem] the hearts of fathers with [their] sons.” The hearts of the wayward sons will be turned back to their Heavenly Father.
