{"id":97948,"date":"2022-11-19T21:27:34","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T19:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/?p=97948"},"modified":"2022-11-19T21:27:34","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T19:27:34","slug":"the-promise-that-materialized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/the-promise-that-materialized\/","title":{"rendered":"The Promise That Materialized"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Promise That Materialized<\/strong><\/p>\n

For many years, I used to receive the public in Vienna, Austria, in the home of Mr. Papa, may he live long. Then, for four years, I stopped this custom.<\/p>\n

Mr. Papa consistently pressed me to come again, saying, \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t the Rav wish to visit? The Jews of Vienna await his arrival. Why does he refuse to come?\u201d<\/p>\n

I always came up with some sort of excuse and did not make an appearance.<\/p>\n

But I had a reason for not coming. The last time I had visited, a man who had been married a number of years came to me. He had not yet been blessed with children. He visited me often, relentlessly begging me to promise him a son.<\/p>\n

The key to life is in Hashem\u2019s hands alone. I promised to pray on his behalf and blessed him in the merit of my holy fathers. But He insisted that I explicitly guarantee him that he would have children.<\/p>\n

In his state of pain, he told me, \u201cI refuse to leave the Rav\u2019s presence until he promises me a son. And I hope that the next time the Rav visits our city, I will come to greet him with a baby in my arms.\u201d To these words, I replied, \u201cAmen! So be it!\u201d But he continued in his obstinacy, \u201cBut, Rav, I want a promise from you<\/em>!\u201d He left me with no choice but to guarantee him a son.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Bar Mitzvah celebration of R\u2019Eliyahu Kornberg\u2019s son. To the left of the Rav, is Rabbi Ari Papa<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Skeptical as to whether or not my promise was fulfilled, I ceased my visits to Vienna. I was afraid the man would approach me with the grievance that my promise had not had effect.<\/p>\n

    With time, I forgot about my promise. After four years, I accepted Mr. Papa\u2019s invitation and visited Vienna again. I was invited to attend the Bar Mitzvah of a member of the community and accompanied Mr. Papa to the hall.<\/p>\n

    Suddenly, I noticed the man who had asked me for a promise for a son four years earlier. I turned to leave before he saw me, but Mr. Papa stopped me, asking in surprise, \u201cWhy is the Rav leaving?\u201d I replied, \u201cThere is a man inside the hall who asked me to promise him a son, which I did. I am afraid to meet him, because he may not yet have been granted a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Mr. Papa rewarded me with a huge smile. \u201cCome with me into the hall. This man has good news to relate to you.\u201d As soon as I entered, the man came running toward me. Amid hugs and kisses, he related, \u201cHonored Rav, in the merit of your blessing, last Friday, my wife gave birth to a boy! This is just as I told the Rav, that the next time he arrives, I hope to have good news to share with him!\u201d<\/p>\n

    I was extremely happy to hear that he had merited a son, after so many years of waiting. My joy was increased by the fact that I was guided by Heaven not to say anything untrue. After four years, my words had effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Promise That Materialized For many years, I used to receive the public in Vienna, Austria, in the home of Mr. Papa, may he live long. Then, for four years, I stopped this custom. Mr. Papa consistently pressed me to come again, saying, \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t the Rav wish to visit? The Jews of Vienna await […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1048],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}