Cushioning Tragedy with Blessing
When I visited Poland in 1994, I was accompanied by the chazzan of the Beit Hakeneset of Aleppo, Mr. Meir Abadi, and a female relative. He related that this woman’s son had been involved in a horrific car accident. He was lying in a hospital bed, unconscious. The doctors did not have much hope for his recovery.
When I heard this story, I instructed Mr. Abadi and his relative to go down to the ground floor of the building we were in and recite Tehillim on behalf of this young man for the next fifteen minutes. Afterward, I told them to come up to my room. In the merit of Tehillim said with a broken heart, my holy fathers, zy”a, would defend the ill boy before Hashem.
They did as I had suggested. When they came up to me, I handed the chazzan a piece of paper on which I had written a blessing. I told him to hurry to the hospital and place the paper under the boy’s pillow.
The man did not believe he would be allowed to come near the boy who lay in intensive care. But he went anyway. Divine intervention was at play, opening all doors before him. Within a short time, the paper was under the boy’s pillow.
After a few hours, the miracle occurred. The boy opened his eyes and asked for a drink. A short time later, he was transferred to the regular ward. With chasdei Shamayim, he had a complete recovery.
A similar incident took place in Tevet, 1996. A girl named Chaya Barda was critically injured in a tragic car accident. She lay in a coma with minimal brain function. Her mother asked me for a blessing. I gave her a bottle of water and instructed her to place it under her sick daughter’s bed. I then blessed her that in the merit of Rabbi Chaim Pinto, zy”a, her daughter should recover from her injuries.
Additionally, I gave two of her relatives papers with blessings for a refuah sheleimah. I told them to place the papers under her pillow. Baruch Hashem, the girl had a miraculous recovery. I have no idea how it happened. It was certainly Hashem’s Hand which gave the girl back her life.
I am often overwhelmed by the power of pure faith. But many times, the Satan is involved in things. One finds that the more he prays, the more problems arise. But the important thing is not to despair of Heavenly mercy and continue praying and hoping for Hashem’s salvation.
