#290 (s5763-36 / 5 Iyar)
"Double Healing"

A Child's Remedy

When the Rebbe Shmuel of Lubavitch was a young child he was unusually serious, but often a bit mischievous. One day, when he was just six or seven years old and searching for a quiet place to sit and learn Torah, he decided to try the women's section of the Shul. He was right. In the middle of the week the second floor of the Synagogue was empty and a perfect place for study.

He had been sitting and studying for a few hours when suddenly the silence was broken by sound of the side door opening followed by the sobs of a woman. He silently walked to the front of the balcony and peeked down to the main floor. There he saw a woman standing before the Holy Ark, weeping uncontrollably.

"G-d, please help me!" she moaned. "I'm alone! I've tried to work; I've tried everything. But the house is bare and my children are starving! My husband is dead, all I have is You. Please answer my prayers, G-d!"

Her body shook with heart-rending sobs. Little Shmuel felt he had to do something. She was disturbing his learning and besides, he couldn't stand to see suffering. He ducked down behind the low wall and said in the lowest voice he could conjure. "Lady! Lady! Do not worry!"

The high ceiling of the empty Shul created a sort of heavenly echo that made it seem as though his voice was coming from everywhere. The woman fell to her knees, looked up at the ceiling, raised her hands towards heaven and sighed "Oh! Oh! Thank you, Lord!"

When he saw it was working he continued, "Do not cry! You will have money. I am giving you the power to heal! When someone is sick, just take a glass of water, make the "Sheh'ha'kol" blessing (the standard blessing of acknowledgement before drinking water), drink a bit, pour a bit for the sick person, and then bless them. People will pay you much money and you will never be needy again!"

Then the boy paused dramatically for a moment and said, "But remember! Never tell anyone how you got this power."

"Oh, I won't. I promise!" She innocently replied. "Thank you, Lord. Thank you! I won't tell a soul. Oh, this is wonderful!"

She stood and backed out of the Shul while drying her eyes, certain that an angel had spoken to her, and returned home.

The next morning she got to work spreading the word that she could heal, and that very day someone brought their sick father to be cured. She felt a bit strange but she did as the voice had told her the day before and amazingly, it worked. The man actually felt better!

The news spread like a forest fire and in no time people were lined up at her door. She transformed from a pauper to a fairly wealthy woman in just a few weeks.

The years passed. About 25 years later the child, Shmuel, became the Rebbe "Maharash" of Chabad, renowned throughout Russia for his genius and his holiness. Thousands flocked to his center in Lubavitch to obtain his blessings and his advice. Then, one cold winter he became dangerously ill.

He had caught a cold, but what began as a simple sore throat developed into a large festering boil deep in his throat that was threatening his life. The doctors, afraid to cut because of its delicate location, tried various treatments, but they all failed and things were deteriorating rapidly; the Rebbe developed a high fever and it appeared there was no alternative but to operate.

Then someone suggested that maybe, as a last resort, they should try Bubba (Grandma) Sarah. It seems there was this old Jewish lady in Vitebsk that had some charm for healing people and because there was no other choice she was brought, trembling with awe at the thought that she was actually in the same room with the holy Lubavitcher Rebbe, to heal him. The Rebbe was lying on his back, his head propped up by a large pillow breathing with great difficulty and in obvious pain.

But before she could even begin he asked, "First you must tell me what the source of your power to heal is."

"Oh, Rebbe!" moaned the old woman. "Please don't ask me to do that. I promised that I wouldn't tell. Please Rebbe!"

But the Rebbe insisted. "I promise that nothing will happen to you or your remedy. "After all, G-d also tells me things that are secret, so He won't mind if I know your secret too. In any case, I cannot take your treatment until you tell me."

How could she deny the holy Rebbe? She told him the entire story of how 25 years ago a heavenly voice spoke to her in the shul.

Suddenly the Rebbe realized that it was he himself that had given her the blessing and he began to laugh. It was painful because of the boil, but the more he thought about it the harder he laughed, he simply couldn't stop himself. His family, hearing the noise from where they were in the next room, thought the Rebbe was having some sort of attack and rushed into the room after sending for the doctor.

The doctor arrived just in time to see that the Rebbe's exuberant laughter had split the boil open and now all that remained was to clean the wound. In just days the Rebbe was back on his feet, a completely healthy man!

[Adapted by Yrachmiel Tilles from the rendition of his esteemed colleague Rabbi Tuvia Bolton in his weekly email for Yeshiva Ohr Tmimim: http://www.ohrtmimim.org/torah ; yeshiva@ohrtmimim.org.]

Biographical note:
Rabbi Shmuel Schneersohn (2 Iyar 1834-13 Tishrei 1882), the fourth Lubavitch Rebbe, known as the Rebbe Maharash, was the sixth and youngest son of his predecessor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the Tsemach Tsedek.

Yrachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and editor of Ascent Quarterly and the AscentOfSafed.com and KabbalaOnline.org websites. He has hundreds of published stories to his credit.