Self-improvement – The Last Leg of Illness
A man once told me that he had been suffering from a wound in his foot for the past half year. His doctors had told him this was nothing serious and just gave him various creams and ointments. But they did not help at all. He continued suffering.
When I heard his story, I remembered that my father, too, zy”a, suffered similarly. After undergoing testing, he was diagnosed with diabetes. He was told that he had to have his leg amputated so that the infection would not spread throughout his body. (Baruch Hashem, in a most miraculous way, he was spared this procedure.)
I asked the man standing before me if he, too, suffered from diabetes. He repeated that the doctors stated that he had nothing serious.
“Did you undergo any testing whatsoever?” I continued.
“No,” he replied. “The doctors made their assessment based only on the wound on my leg. I was not sent to do any sort of tests. I also wondered about this.” I instructed him to do a battery of tests, in spite of the doctors’ cavalier attitude.
The results revealed that this man suffered from the same illness as my father had. He was informed that his leg had to be amputated. He ran to me on both feet, begging for advice as to how to proceed. He didn’t want to lose his leg.
I responded that it is well-known that when a person resolves to improve in his Avodat Hashem, this resolution has the power to annul harsh decrees against him. It would therefore be beneficial to undertake improvement in some minor matter. B’ezrat Hashem, he would see a major deliverance.
He did as I had instructed. After only a few months, his baffled doctors informed him that there was no trace of his former illness. His leg was completely healed.
This incident was a proof of Divine intervention. For a full six months, the man had not done any sort of testing. Then Hashem brought him to me, and I remembered Father’s illness. The man was eventually completely healed, in the merit of his self-improvement.
