Weekly Chasidic Story #649 (s5770-34 / 20 Iyar 5770)

A Blessing Through the Volcano

Within the chaos, one young Jew merits a smile of grace from the Creator of the World, and a miraculous series of events begins to unfold.

Connection: Current Events

 

A Blessing Through the Volcano


A universal crisis, millions of people stranded and billions of dollars lost, as one volcanic eruption in Iceland causes chaos across the European continent. Within all this tumult, one Jew merits a smile of grace from the Creator of the World, and a miraculous series of events begins to unfold.

The story begins with a young yeshiva student, an 18 year old Jerusalemite, who came down with a fulminate hepatic failure and was mortally ill. The doctors agreed there was no hope for him unless he could receive a liver transplant.

With little hope of receiving a liver transplant in Israel, his family consulted with Rabbi Firer, known for his successful record of medical referrals. The rabbi advised to send the boy immediately to Brussels, the world center of liver transplants. He cautioned, however, that Brussels is known to not transplant non-EU patients under any circumstances, in order to save the scanty supply of livers for Europeans. Nevertheless, it was decided to send him to Brussels anyway, despite the full knowledge of the negligible chance of receiving a liver, and the effort and expenses involved. It was the boy's last hope.

Upon arrival, the young student had no choice but to add his name to the long waiting list for a liver transplant. In the meantime, he tried to maintain his yeshiva-studies schedule despite the illness, consciously aware that it could take weeks, months, and even years till he will be able to be given a new liver. Many patients were on the waiting list, and his name was somewhere on the bottom. And should his turn finally arrive, the liver must completely match his blood type and other medical criteria. If it is not a perfect match, he will need to continue waiting...for a miracle.

However, "Many thoughts in a man's heart; nevertheless the plan of G-d shall prevail," and it seems G-d had a different plan for this young Jew. In the month of Iyar, whose letters stand for the words "ani Hashem rofecha" - "I, G-d, am your healer" -- the Al-mighty's loyal servants produced avalanches of hot ash, rock and gas in Iceland, causing Europe to completely shut down its skies and create a no-fly zone. No one could leave and no one could enter during this self-imposed embargo.

Meanwhile, throughout this time, a religious boy from Jerusalem continued to sit in a yeshiva in the capital of Belgium, diligently learning Torah.

In the midst of the closure, a person died in the famous Brussels, a person who had agreed to donate his liver to anyone that might need it. Astonishingly, this liver was a perfect match in every parameter for the young yeshiva student.

The health authorities of Belgium began contacting the names on liver transplant waiting list in order, but 'unfortunately,' not even one patient was able to fly into Belgium for a desperately needed healthy-liver transplant, as a result of the after-effects of the volcanic eruption in Iceland.

As they advanced further on the waiting list, they reached the student from Israel. Nevertheless, they did not offer the liver to the boy because of his lack of citizenship.

The clock ticked closer and closer to the deadline for the amount of time in which the liver would still be viable for transplanting. The precious healthy liver must not be wasted and would have to be swiftly used to replace a diseased liver. But no one was able to arrive in Belgium for the transplant except the young Yerushalmi.

So, thanks to clear Divine Intervention, the dedicated young yeshiva student received the liver and is now recovering from surgery.

The enormity of this miracle became even clearer after the successful liver transplant. The doctors said that the young yeshiva student's liver was very deteriorated and diseased, and in a matter of days his liver would have stopped functioning completely. The doctors unanimously believe that if this young man had to continue waiting for the liver transplant, he would have been long dead.

The names of the patient (the hospital and the doctors) cannot be released, because of the increasingly strict laws about patient privacy. We wish him a speedy and complete recovery, and long and healthy years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from the Hebrew report on <bhol.co.il/news_read.asp?id=16513&cat_id=11>, with help from the English translation on <dreamingofmoshiach.blogspot.com/2010/04/great-miracle-of-volcano-shutdown.html>. A big todah to Chana Besser of Tsfat for submitting these links for my attention.

Connection: Current Events

Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and director of the AscentOfSafed.com and KabbalaOnline.org websites. He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. His weekly mailing of chasidic/kabbalist stories, now in its thirteenth year, goes to thousands of subscribers.


~~~~~~~~~~~


Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

To receive the Story by e-mail every Wednesday--sign up here!

A 48 page soft-covered booklet containing eleven of his most popular stories may be ordered on our store site.


back to Top   back to this year's Story Index   Stories home page   Stories Archives
Redesign and implementation - By WEB-ACTION