Weekly Chasidic Story #924 (s5775-47 / 25
Menachem-Av 5775)
A Kosher Eight Hours Sleep
In 1976, my [Rabbi Yekusiel Farkash] daughter Chana Bayla fell ill with
cancer. Doctor Daniel Krasnekuky at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem took an extraordinary
interest in her treatment. He was incredibly dedicated to her. He'd come from
his department to the children's ward, and he'd sit next to her bed and administer
the injections himself. Unfortunately the treatments were not successful, and
she passed away, "Don't ask, my wife is on her deathbed, may G-d save her." "What
happened?" I said to him, "I have a solution: Ask the Rebbe." "You have nothing to lose." I told her. "Leave me alone, I'm not interested!" Hearing that, she agreed, I told the doctor to sleep near the phone, in case there was a response from New York. The following morning, I gave them a call. The wife picked up the phone. During the night they had received an answer from the Rebbe: "Eat and drink only kosher foods, and I will seek a blessing at the Previous Rebbe's gravesite." Now she had not given the Rebbe any personal information, so how did he know that she did not already keep kosher? However, she was prepared to do it. She said to me, "Okay, fine, what now? Kosher means no pork and no shellfish, right?" "There's a lot more to it than that," I said. "You can't mix meat and milk. You need to make all your pots and pans kosher, we'll need to redo your whole kitchen." "Oy veyl" "Do you want to be healthy?" After thinking for a minute, she said, "Yes, I do! You see, the Rebbe is smart. He's not like you - he didn't tell me to become religious, he only instructed me to keep kosher." I brought over some people and they koshered her kitchen. To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure what would happen next. In a day's time, I called to see what was happening with her seizures. "Rabbi Farkash, don't mention seizures! Last night, for the first time, I slept for eight hours straight!" Over the next few years, little by little, she and her whole family became fully observant. During the time that they were in the middle of this process a few other amazing things happened: One day, the doctor came to see me, "Listen, Rabbi Farkash, I received a letter from the Rebbe filled with acronyms, and I can't figure out what they mean." Now, I had seen plenty of the letters that he had received from the Rebbe as a doctor at Hadassah Hospital. People in their final days would ask him to write to the Rebbe and ask the Rebbe to pray for them. And these letters were always titled, "Dr. Krasnekuky, Hadassah Hospital." But this one was addressed differently. Using an acronym, the Rebbe had written, "The teacher and chasid, the G-d-fearing and venerable master, known as Dr. Daniel Krasnekuky ... " I said to him, "Do you realize what's going on here? Until today you were a doctor, but now you are only known as a doctor. Tell me, did something special happen?" He was sitting opposite me, and I could tell that he was deliberating whether to divulge something to me. Then he said, "Listen, my wife decided to keep the Laws of Family Purity ... Today for the first time in her life, my wife is going to the mikveh." And on that very day he received a letter which the Rebbe sent - obviously
sent a few days earlier - that informed him that his status was changed. In
the Rebbe's eyes, he had become transformed into a different person!
Connection: Weekly Reading-some of the Laws of Keeping Kosher Biographical
note:
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