He Gazes at the Image of Hashem
The following incident took place in Kislev, 1990, in Lyon.
R’ Yitzchak Matzliach, z”l, was an elderly G-d-fearing Jew. He was extremely close with the Pinto family. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer. The disease spread throughout his body, rendering him completely paralyzed.
His worried family asked that I come to pay him a visit in the hospital. I agreed.
I lifted his spirits and strengthened his emunah. I asked him to try to eat something. Although maneuvering the food onto the fork and then into his mouth was extremely difficult, he couldn’t refuse my request, and ate a small amount.
To my great sorrow, he passed away a few days later.
It was close to Shabbat when his coffin was transferred from the hospital to his home. Arrangements were made to bring him to burial in Eretz Yisrael. R’ Yitzchak’s sons asked that I participate in this endeavor. I was scheduled to travel to Morocco the following Sunday, for the wedding of R’ Mordechai Knafo’s daughter. I told them not to wait for my return on Tuesday. Rather, they should fly the coffin immediately to Eretz Yisrael and bury their father as soon as possible. B’ezrat Hashem, after I returned from Morocco to France, I would immediately join them in Eretz Yisrael and eulogize him during the shivah.
On Monday, after I returned to France, I heard that there were very strong windstorms. All outgoing flights from France were cancelled. The Matzliach family, too, were stranded in France together with their father’s casket. I headed toward their house. R’ Matzliach’s sons told me an unbelievable story.
R’ Matzliach has a picture of Rabbi Chaim Pinto, zy”a, hanging on the wall of his home. His own picture, much smaller, hangs on the opposite wall. That Monday morning, one of the sons of the deceased woke up to a most amazing sight. The picture of Rabbi Chaim seemed to have a life of its own. It moved to the spot where R’ Yitzchak Matzliach’s picture was hanging.
The man was visibly shaken. He immediately called for his brother and asked if he noticed anything amiss. His brother did, too, and asked if he had any idea how it had happened. They thought they were hallucinating, due to their recent constant focus on their father. But when the rest of their brothers entered the room, they too were stunned by the change. First, the tzaddik’s picture moved to the opposite wall, and then it returned to its former place.
I asked a relative who had been staying in the home of the deceased the previous evening to verify these narratives. The man replied, “Honored Rav, I am a scientist by profession. I am not easily convinced of anything. If these men would merely have told me this story, I would most definitely not have accepted it as true. I would have thought that something snapped in their heads. But what can I say? Seeing is believing. What they said is the indisputable truth.”
All were dumbstruck at this story. The family wished to glean a lesson from it. I told them, “This is a sign from Heaven that Hashem is the Creator and can do anything He pleases. Additionally, your father was a very strong believer in the merit of the tzaddikim. He may have had a spiritual connection with the tzaddik, Rabbi Chaim Pinto, zy”a. Maybe that is why Rabbi Chaim approached him, wishing to escort him on his final journey.”
This story spread among the residents of the town. It broadcasted to all the greatness of faith in the power of tzaddikim.
