Emunah in the Month of Nissan, A 7 Month Miracle
by Rabbi Arieh Raichman
We are blessed to be the Shluchim in the Capital of the Amazon, in a city called Manaus. You can imagine that the community is quite small, and every Jew is a rare and priceless gem. A few years ago, I met a special yid named Benzion. We developed a close relationship through his interest in Kabbalah.
It started with sefirot, then Hebrew, and eventually mitzvot and prayer. With time he shared with me that he was battling a brain tumor for a number of years. In Brazil, the overwhelmed public health care system, could have people wait until they Lo aleinu pass away. Every week he would call them to see if his name, was up on the list for the much needed treatment, but it wasn’t. With time, the tumor grew and he lost hearing in one of his ears. He was scared that the tumor would spread, and he would lose his intellectual abilities.
Around 7 months ago, my wife gave birth to a child in the local hospital. By hashgacha pratit, Benzion was also admitted to the hospital for some other treatment. I walked across the corridor and visited him. Sitting by his side as he faced the gloomy hospital room he shared his thoughts. He had decided that he would let his hair grow until he had the surgery. It was already quite long when he said that, but at that moment I felt for him and decided something had to be done.
A crazy idea came to my mind, to join him in his quest. I too would not cut my hair until he would get the much needed surgery. I shared the idea with another community member, Yaakov, and he too agreed to not cut his hair. We started to discover more about Benzion’s Gamma Knife treatment and tried fruitlessly to get him to #1 on the public health list, but that always failed. I write to the Rebbe every week, and continued to ask blessings for his health.
Three months ago as both our hairs were becoming pretty wild I decided we had to get more people involved and started a charidy campaign – helpbenzion. Within a few days we Baruch Hashem, raised a quarter of the funds. However, the buzz ended there and the donations quickly stopped coming in.
These crowd funding sites are just platforms. At the end of the day, people give to people. I felt really bad having shared Benzion’s story with the world and yet not resolving his problem. That is when I walked into the office, downcast and with a heavy heart. I put my head down and davened for Hashem’s help.
Within a minute the phone rang, and it went straight to voicemail, but being that there was no space nothing was recorded. You see my daughter likes to use the phone and call on speed dial many times filling up the voice box. I decided to erase some old messages, and low and behold I hear a voice of somebody saying he wants me to call him to speak to about Benzion’s campaign.
I immediately contact him and he says he wants to help either via the public system or by getting others to donate. Now, I can openly see Hashem’s hand guiding us when we needed it most. A few weeks go by and although me and this kindhearted gentleman exchanged messages the only thing that materialized was that the price of the treatment was renegotiated to almost a half of the original proposal. That was a big feat, but we still needed to raise a significant amount of money.
That is when I decided to fly to S. Paulo, together with Benzion for people to see him and understand that this is not a hoax. Once there, Baruch Hashem things started moving and we raised another 20 percent. A few days later that generous individual helped raise the remaining part. And just a few days ago on the 28 of Adar, Benzion flew to Brasilia for the successful surgery.
I share this story, as we enter the month of Nissan for everybody to never underestimate the power of Hashem, the blessings of the Rebbe, and our own G-d given abilities. Miracles do happen, and often greatest obstacle are in our own heads. May we all overcome our challenges and share the amazing news with others.
