Standing Steadfast in Faith
A woman once came to me with her son in a wheelchair. With great anguish, she related that as a result of a terrible car accident, her son became paralyzed from the waist down. His doctors did not see any chance of recovery. But she had faith in Hashem, the Healer of all flesh. She now asked for my blessing in the merit of my holy ancestors for a complete recovery for her child.
I thought of the Gemara (Berachot 5b) which relates that Rabbi Yochanan was sick and Rabbi Chanina came to visit him. “Do you like hardships?” asked Rabbi Chanina. “Not them and not their reward,” responded Rabbi Yochanan. “Give me your hand,” Rabbi Chanina said. Rabbi Yochanan placed his hand in those of Rabbi Chanina. Then Rabbi Yochanan got up and left.
I decided to try the same tactic. I told the boy to stand up and give me his hand. With tremendous effort, the boy tried to pull himself up and stretch out his hand to me. But then he fell back down into his wheel chair.
I instructed his mother to tell him the story of Rabbi Chanina and Rabbi Yochanan every day and then tell him, in the language of the Gemara, “Hav li yadcha,” meaning, “Give me your hand.” She should force him to stand and, B’ezrat Hashem, would see salvation.
Three years went by. Imagine how stunned I was to see this woman, together with her son standing on his own two feet. She related, most excitedly, how she had spent the last three years saying “Hav li yadcha” on a daily basis. There were days when he flatly refused to comply. “See how the tzaddik’s blessing is helping,” he remarked sarcastically. “It’s so difficult for me to stand up; why are you doing this to me?”
But the mother would not give up. She firmly believed that the day would come when they would see a miracle. One morning, after she asked her son to stand, everyone was stunned to see him jump up easily and stand like a healthy person. He shocked himself as well and began dancing and prancing about the house.
I was impressed by the magnitude of the force of perfect faith, implanted in the heart of every Jew, no matter how simple and ordinary. Chazal (Sanhedrin 37a) comment on the pasuk in Shir Hashirim (4:3), “As many as a pomegranate’s seeds are the merits of your least worthy.” Even the unlearned of our nation are as full of mitzvot as the pomegranate.
There is no doubt that it was this woman’s faith which stood by her to see her son’s salvation. Although she did not see improvement for three full years, she maintained her faith that the day would come when her son would stand on his feet. And it did.
