Freeing the Spirit

Parshas Vayeishev

Posted on December 18, 2024 (5785) By Rabbi Naftali Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner

 

Divine providence seems to work in strange ways, especially for Joseph languishing in an Egyptian prison. Unjustly accused of making advances to Potiphar’s wife, Joseph has been thrown into the dungeon and left there to rot. But destiny requires that he be released and elevated to high office in the royal palace, and to affect this important result, divine providence arranges a very outlandish set of circumstances.

 

As we read in this week’s Torah portion, ten years after his incarceration Joseph meets up with two discredited palace functionaries, the royal cupbearer and the royal baker. One morning, he finds them despondent. He questions them and discovers that they both had disturbing dreams the previous night. He offers astute interpretations of their dreams, and the sequence of events bears out his predictions. Two years later, when Pharaoh has his own puzzling dreams, the cupbearer remembers Joseph’s interpretive skills and recommends him to Pharaoh. Joseph is brought to the palace, where his brilliant interpretations and wisdom win him high office, and the rest is history.

 

This story certainly makes for high drama, but why were all these farfetched developments necessary? Why didn’t divine providence manifest itself in a simpler way? Couldn’t Joseph’s release and rise to power have been affected through more commonplace events?

 

The commentators explain that Joseph’s release from prison is meant to serve as a paradigm of the ultimate in human emancipation. The vicissitudes of life can cause a person to experience confinement of many sorts, not only physical incarceration but also psychological and emotional bondage of the spirit, which can often be far more painful. How is a person to extricate himself from these situations? How can he escape the isolation sometimes imposed by his conditions?

 

The answer is to focus on the needs of others. As long as a person is absorbed in his own miserable condition, he cannot help but wallow in self-pity to some degree and to walk on the edge of despair. Once he shifts his focus to others, however, his presence in confinement is no longer purposeless and negative. On the contrary, his is a positive presence bringing relief to others and fulfillment to himself. By freeing the spirit, he will in effect have emancipated himself from the shackles of his condition.

 

Joseph personified this approach. Unjustly accused and imprisoned, he did not withdraw into himself to bemoan his awful fate. Instead, he immediately became the heart and soul of the prison, always there to help a stricken inmate. In this sense, he affected his own emancipation even as he still remained confined within the prison walls. And to drive home the point, Hashem contrived that his actual physical release should also be the result of the kindness he performed for others.

 

A prisoner was thrown into a cell with a large number of other prisoners. The walls of the prison were thick and damp, and high up on one side, far above the heads of even the tallest prisoners, was a tiny, heavily barred window that looked out over a barren piece of land. Every day, the new prisoner would drag his bed to the wall under the window. Then he would climb onto the bed, stand on his tiptoes and, stretching, was just able to rest his chin on the stone window sill. The other prisoners gathered in groups to talk or play games, but the new prisoner never participated. He just stood there all day, staring out the window.

 

“What do you see out there?” a prisoner asked him.

“Nothing,” he replied.

 

“Then why do you stand there all day?”

 

“As long as I look out at the world outside,” the new prisoner replied, “I still feel a little connection with it. I still have a little bit of my freedom. But once I turn away from this window and look only at the cell and my cellmates, all my freedom will be gone. Once I surrender to my situation, I will truly be imprisoned.”

 

In our own lives, we are often pummeled by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

 

Assailed by financial difficulties, family and childrearing problems, pressure in the workplace and all sorts of other strains and stresses, we can easily find ourselves becoming gloomy and depressed. So what can we do? How can we regain the equilibrium and morale we need to deal with our problems constructively? By throwing ourselves into helping families less fortunate than ourselves or an important community project. For one thing, focusing on others immediately relieves the distress of our own situations. But more important, it elevates us spiritually and allows us to view our troubles in the broader perspective of what has lasting value in the ultimate scheme of things and what does not.

 

Text Copyright © 2008 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.

The Spark that is the Key to Jewish Endurance

Parshas Vayeishev

Chanukah

Posted on November 26, 2021 (5782) By Mordechai Dixler | Series: Lifeline | Level: Beginner

 

A merchant once entered the marketplace, his camels loaded high with flax to sell. A blacksmith noticed the spectacle of tall, cumbersome loads of flax, and wondered aloud, “Where will all that flax go?!” A clever fellow answered him, “What’s the problem? One blow of your bellow could send a spark onto all that flax, and burn it until nothing is left!” (Midrash BR 84:5)

 

Last week’s Torah portion concluded with a lengthy accounting of Esau’s descendants, consisting of many prominent families and nations. Jacob, with his 12 sons, was just beginning to establish the Jewish nation, and Jacob felt intimidated by the growing dominance of his brother Esau. Like the blacksmith, he wondered, what will happen to this little nation of Jews, when they are threatened by oppressors and influences from mighty kingdoms? Just as a small town would appear too small to consume massive piles of flax, the Jewish people would be no match for the overwhelming pressure they would face among the kingdoms of Esau.

 

The answer, says the Midrash, is “These are the descendants of Jacob, Joseph… (Gen. 37:2)” Joseph, who faithfully kept to the moral values of his father’s house, and overcame tremendous challenges (as recorded in this week’s portion), would be the key to survival through the generations. “The house of Jacob will be the fire, the house of Joseph the flame, and the house of Esau the straw (Ovadiah 1).” A spark will come from Joseph that will burn up any threat. (See Rashi Gen. 37:1)

 

Chanukah marks the Jewish victory over the Greeks. The threat from Greece was not so much a threat to Jewish lives, but a threat to the lifeblood of the Jewish nation: G-d’s Torah. All the decrees against the Jewish people were designed to erase Torah study and Mitzvah observance.

 

If successful, the Jews would assimilate and lose all identity. How could this little Jewish nation possibly face the world power of Greece and Greek culture? Inspired by the steadfast strength of Joseph, Judah Maccabee, his brothers, and all those who would stand for G-d’s Torah and service, bravely dared to oppose the Greeks. G-d was impressed by their intense faith and gave them a miraculous victory over the Greek armies, restoring their liberty to practice and study G-d’s Torah. The light of the Torah, that spark of their ancestors, burned up the threat of the most dominant culture.

 

This Chanukah, let’s remember the sacrifice of our faithful ancestors, and G-d’s hand that guided us to victory. The miracle of the oil made it clear for all generations that G-d defends those faithful to Torah, and its eternal flames will always give us the strength to continue in our devoted service of the Al-mighty.

 

Because of Them

Parshas Vayishlach

Posted on December 3, 2020 (5781) By Rabbi Label Lam | Series: Dvar Torah| Level: Beginner

 

And Yaakov remained alone and a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. And he saw that he could not defeat him so he grabbed him in the hollow of his thigh and he dislocated the hollow of Yaakov’s thigh with his wrestling with him. And he said, “Send me because the dawn has broken.” And he said, “I will not send you unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What’s your name?” and he said, “Yaakov!” And he said, “No long will your name be Yaakov but rather Israel, because you struggled with the Divine and man and you prevailed.” And Yaakov asked and he said, “Tell me please, what your name is?” And he said, “Why is it that you ask for my name?” And he blessed him there. (Breishis 32:25-30)

 

I think we can make an easy case that Yaakov Avinu may have had the most blessed and accomplished lives in all history. He received blessings and promises from his holy father Yitzchok and directly from HASHEM. He produced and raised the twelve tribes that would constitute the Jewish People. That’s not small potatoes!

 

Yet we find that his world was being constantly rocked by waves of opposition. He had one of the most difficult lives ever recorded. The list of chronic challenges is long and intense. Right from the very beginning, in the womb, he was already battling with his Eisav. His brother forever hates him for having followed his mother’s commandment to take the blessings. He needed to exit his comfort zone and become a man of the field and after having spent 14 sleepless years in the Yeshiva of Shem and Ever, he came into contact with his deceitful father in law. He worked day and night for twenty years while his salary was changed one hundred times.

 

Because his father in law tricked him by substituting Leah for Rochel, he was left with competing wives. Finally after having raised his family he needs to run away from Lavan like a thief and he was chased. Upon returning to Eretz Yisrael his wife Rochel dies, and he finds himself having to confront Eisav who is approaching him as a warrior. Then his sons wipe out the city of Schem after his daughter Dina is ravaged. Suddenly his beloved Yosef is torn from his midst for 22 years. Nothing here is easy or pleasant.

Maybe, though, that’s what made him so great! That he wrestled with an angel all night long and his name was changed from Yaakov to Yisrael is a special lesson and a source of inspiration for all of us. Sometimes a person finds themself in a situation, for whatever reason, where challenges seem insurmountable. What is one to do!?

 

I have had many direct conversations with people who have shared such difficulties. The pain is deep and chronic. There is no quick fix. I have spoken to prisoners who see no light nearing at the end of the tunnel, or people struggling with challenging children or marriages. Tragically some have been permanently scared and stained by one form of abuse or another. What is one to say!? My answer is the same. One size fits all!

 

Of course, only after feeling, offering and expressing profound empathy: “Your life is not a simple one.

 

You cannot afford to coast along casually. You find yourself in a situation, in a circumstance where you have only two choices, to become crazy or great! HASHEM has chosen you for greatness, obviously. He would not give you these challenges if you would not be able to stand up to them.

 

However, don’t do it for yourself alone. If and/or when you manage to overcome these profound challenges and you find the key to your own heart, you will have discovered the master key to help thousands of others in a similar situation. You will no longer feel like a reject but rather you will be a resource. That will have made all the suffering worth the while, though it’s not something you can easily appreciate right now.

 

A name is a description of the potential of a person. The numerical value of Yaakov is 182. The angel that he wrestled with, the opposing force SATAN, equals 359. Together they add up to the numerical value of Yisrael. Wow! What does this teach us?

 

When a person is able to stand up to “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” and emerge victorious, he not only lives up to and fulfills his potential, but he will have managed to expand and supersede his potential. All of this greatness is not accomplished in spite of his challenges but rather because of them.

 

The Roots of Strength

Parshas Vayishlach

Posted on December 3, 2020 (5781) By Rabbi Naftali Reich | Series: Legacy | Level: Beginner

 

Yiddishe nachas – two words so full of Jewish meaning that they defy translation into any other language. Yiddishe nachas is that special blend of pride, joy and satisfaction that Jewish parents feel when they look at their successful children and remember all the effort that went into them. It is a sigh and a smile grafted together.

 

Child rearing is never easy, especially in Jewish families that demand so much from their children. Even in the best of circumstances, molding a child into a sensitive, responsible person is not only a rewarding experience but also a harrowing ordeal that last for some twenty plus years.

 

And should problems arise – as they often do – the ordeal can become next to unbearable.

 

Why is this so? We don’t find such extended periods of child rearing among any other species in the world. The young are born, they are kept under their mother’s figurative wing for a few hours or days or weeks, and they’re off on their own. Humans, however, are helpless for the first few years of life and heavily dependent on their parents for many years afterwards. We find the same disparity in childbirth itself. All species give birth quickly and easily – except for humans. Why did Hashem see fit to bring the little bundles of joys into the world by such a painful process? And why did he give them such a long period of dependency?

 

Perhaps we can find the answers in this week’s parshah. As Rachel feels her life ebbing away after a very difficult childbirth, she looks at her newborn son and with her last gasping breaths she names him Ben Oni, “the child of my affliction.” But Jacob does not accept this name for his son. Instead, he names him Ben Yamin (Benjamin), “the child of the right hand.” Why didn’t Jacob allow the child to carry the name his mother had given him with her dying breath?

 

The Ramban explains that Jacob was not rejecting the name Rachel had chosen. Rather, he was focusing on one specific aspect of it. The word oni means both affliction and strength, and these two concepts are very closely related. Strength is inevitably the result of affliction. Solid results of lasting value can only be achieved through toil, sweat and tears. Therefore, Jacob chose to name his son Ben Yamin, because the right hand symbolizes strength, which goes hand in hand with affliction.

 

Human beings are infinitely higher than the creatures of the animal kingdom. They cannot be formed with a snap of the fingers. It takes years and decades of careful nurturing and education to produce this wondrous creature known as a human being. And the more effort invested the greater the reward.

 

A man once came to visit a principal of a large school. As he waited in the office, he saw the principal in the hallway surrounded by children clamoring for his attention. The principal responded to each of the children with patience and a kind word. When they had all gone, he came in to greet his visitor.

 

“I don’t know how you manage it,” the visitor commented. “I would go out of my mind if I had to go through every day with dozens of little kids screaming in my ears. You must be climbing the walls!”

 

“Not at all, my friend,” said the principal. “Each of these children is an unpolished diamond. I spend years shaping, smoothing, polishing and buffing these precious little diamonds in the rough, and by the time they leave me, I can see them glittering from within. Which of these little diamonds would you have me discard?”

 

We all have our own shares of troubles in life, but we should view them as obstacles to overcome on the road to personal fulfillment. Each obstacle is an opportunity for growth, depending on how we respond to it. Like Rachel, we must recognize the afflictions that are part of life, and like Jacob, we must see in them the roots of a strength that will make it all worthwhile.

 

Text Copyright © 2006 by Rabbi Naftali Reich and Torah.org.

 

 

Death Wish

Parshas Toldos

Posted on November 27, 2024 (5785) By Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky | Series: Drasha| Level: Beginner

 

Esav. He represents so much evil. We know him as the hunter, the ruthless marauder, murderer of Nimrod and stalker of Yaakov. Yet, believe it or not, he had some saving grace. He is even considered a paradigm of virtuous character at least in one aspect of his life honoring parents. The Torah tells us that Yitzchak loved Esav. And Esav loved him back. He respected his father and served him faithfully. In fact, the Medrash and Zohar talk favorably about the power of Esav’s kibud av, honor of his father. They even deem it greater than that of his brother Yaakov’s. And so Yitzchak requested Esav to “go out to the field and hunt game for me, then make me delicacies such as I love, and I will eat, so that my soul may bless you before I die”

 

(Genesis 27:3-4). Yitzchak wanted to confer the blessings to him. Esav won his father’s regard.

 

And even when Esav found out that his brother, Yaakov beat him to the blessings, he did not yell at his father, in the method of modern filial impugnation, “How did you let him do that?!” All he did was “cry out an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me too, Father!” (ibid v.34). Yitzchak finds some remaining blessing to bestow upon his older son, but the grudge does not evaporate. What troubles me is not the anger of defeat or the desire for revenge, rather the way Esav expressed it. “Now Esau harbored hatred toward Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau thought, “May the days of mourning for my father draw near, then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

 

“May the days of mourning for my father draw near” Think about it. How did the love for a father turn into the eager anticipation of his death?

 

The seventh grade class of the posh Harrington Boy’s School, nestled in the luxurious rolling hills of suburbia, was teeming with excitement. The winter had begun, and they were rapidly approaching the beginning of the holiday season. The children had been talking about their wishes and expectations for holiday presents and were telling the class what they were going to get.

 

Johnny had been promised that if he finished his piano lessons, he’d get a new 800-megahertz computer. Arthur had asked for a real drum set and was promised it on the condition he gets grades of 100 on two consecutive math tests.

 

Billy had not been so lucky. He had begged his dad for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, to which his father replied, “Over my dead body!” He settled. If he would write a weekly letter to his uncle in Wichita, he would get a motorized scooter.

 

The day came and all the kids had the chance to share their expectations with their peers.

 

“When I get two hundreds in a row, I’m getting a real drum set!” shouted Arthur.

 

“When I finish piano lessons, I’m getting the latest computer!” exclaimed Johnny. And so it went. Each child announced his goal and the prize that awaited him upon accomplishment.

 

Finally Billy swaggered up to the front of the class. “If I write my uncle I’m gonna get a scooter.” He quickly continued, “but that’s nothing! ‘Cause when my daddy dies, I’m getting a Harley-Davidson motorcycle!”

 

Passions overrule sanity. They even overtake years of love and commitment. When one is enraged, he can turn against his best friend, his closest ally, and even his own parents! Esav, who spent his first 63 years in undying adulation of his father, changed his focus in a burst of emotion. Now, instead of worrying about his father’s fare, he awaited the day of his farewell. All in anticipation of the revenge he would take on Yaakov.

 

When passions perverse our priorities, and obsessions skew our vision, friends become foes and alliance becomes defiance. In the quest for paranoiac revenge, everyone is an enemy, even your own parents. But mostly your own self.

 

Dedicated lezecher nishmat our zeida Avraham Yehoshua Heshel ben Yehuda Hacohen – 7 Kislev sponsored by Miriam, Josh, Tamar & Shlomo Hauser

 

Focus on the Future

Parshas Chayei Sarah

Posted on October 31, 2018 (5779) By Rabbi Berel Wein | Series: Rabbi Wein | Level: Beginner

The loss of one’s beloved spouse, especially after many years and decades of marriage and shared life, is always a traumatic and shattering blow. Those of us, who unfortunately have also experienced this occurrence of Avraham’s life in our own lives can testify as to the emotional damage and even physical harm that this sad experience can occasion.

 

We see from the life of our father Jacob that even decades later he reminds his children and himself of the pain and suffering caused by the death of his beloved wife, Rachel. In essence, it seems that Jacob never again was the same person after the death of Rachel.

 

However, Avraham apparently dealt with the death of Sarah in a more stoic fashion. The Torah itself indicates this by inference, when it wrote concerning Avraham’s reaction to the tragedy by using a small letter kaf in its description of the grief and weeping of Avraham over the death of Sarah.

 

It is not that Avraham is less grieved at the loss of Sarah then Jacob was at the death of Rachel, It is rather that after all of the challenges and trials that Avraham had already endured, his attitude towards life and its vicissitudes was now always one of looking forward and never dwelling on the past.

 

Those who live exclusively in the past are doomed to self-pity and great emotional angst. This only causes a sense of victimhood and hopelessness. It reflects itself in every aspect of later life and stunts any further spiritual, social, personal or societal growth. The greatness of Avraham, as taught us by the Mishnah, was his resilience and continued spiritual and personal growth. Avraham constantly looked forward – ahead – and never dwelled on past misfortune.

 

I heard an outstanding speech delivered by George Deek, a Christian Arab who is a member of the Israeli Foreign Office. In telling the story of his life he describes how his family lived in Jaffa for many generations and how they fled to Lebanon during the 1948 War of Independence.

 

Sensing the squalor and political manipulation of the refugees by the Arab powers, whose sole goal was the destruction of Israel and not in saving and resettling the refugees, his grandfather escaped Lebanon and somehow brought the family back to Jaffa and Israel, regained his job with the Israel Electric Company. He raised generations of successful professionals, all citizens of Israel.

 

He said that the Jewish refugees from Europe and the Moslem world attempted to forget their past and build a new future for themselves and their descendants when they arrived in Israel. The Palestinian Arab refugees, under the misguided leadership of their spiritual and temporal heads, reveled instead in their past defeats, in their legend of nakba and, in the main, devoted themselves to attempting to destroy Israel rather than rehabilitating themselves.

 

That attitude and mindset has served them badly and cost them dearly. The past needs to be remembered and recalled, treasured and instructive to us. However, it is the future and what we make of it that ultimately determines our worth and our fate. That is one of the great lessons to be derived from the story of the life of our father Avraham.

 

Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Berel Wein

 

 

Blessing In Disguise

Parshas Vayera

Posted on November 4, 2020 (5781) By Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky | Series: Drasha| Level: Beginner

In Pashas Vayera, Sora, the 90-year-old wife of Avraham, receives a most surprising piece of information from an even more surprising source. She is told by Arab nomads, who had found obliging accommodation in Avraham’s house, that in one year she will have a child. Instinctively, she reacts in disbelief to this prediction. She laughs.

 

Immediately, Hashem appears to Avraham He is upset. “Why did Sora laugh? Is there something that is beyond the Almighty? At the appointed time I shall return, and behold Sora will have a son (Genesis 18:12-13).

 

Hashem’s ire must be explained. After all, Sora was not told by Hashem that she will have a baby. She was informed by what appeared to be Arab wanderers. And though the Talmud explains that the three nomads were indeed angels sent by the Almighty, they did not identify themselves as such. So what does G-d want from Sora?

 

A man once entered the small study of the revered the Steipler Gaon, Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievski with a plea. “I’d like a blessing from the Rav. My daughter has been looking to get married for several years. All her friends are married and she would like to get married too, but nothing is working. Can the Rosh Yeshiva bless her to find her bashert? (appropriate one),” he asked.

 

The Steipler turned to the man and asked, “Is this your first daughter?”

 

“No,” replied the distraught parent, “Why do you ask?”

 

“When she was born did you celebrate with a kiddush?” ( a celebratory party in a religious setting)

 

The man was perplexed. “No. But, that was 27 years ago,” he stammerred, “and she was my third girl. I may have made a l’chayim while the minyan was leaving shul, but I never made a proper kiddush. But what does a missed kiddush 27 years ago have to do with my daughter’s shidduch (match) today?”

 

“When one makes a kiddush at a festive occasions,” explained Rav Kanievski, ” each l’chayim he receives is accompanied by myriad blessings. Some are from friends, others from relatives, and those blessings given by total strangers.

 

Among those blessings are definitely the perfunctory wishes for an easy time in getting married. By not making a kiddush for your daughter, how many blessings did you deprive her of? I suggest you make your daughter the kiddush that she never had.”

 

The man followed the advice, and sure enough within weeks after the kiddush the girl had met her mate.

 

At the bris (circumcision) of his first son (after ten girls), my uncle, Rabbi Dovid Speigel, the Ostrove-Kalushin Rebbe of Cedarhurst, Long Island, quoted the Ramban (Nachmanides) in this week’s portion.

 

The reason that Hashem was upset at Sora was that even if an Arab nomad gives the blessing, one must be duly vigilant to respond, “Amen.” One never knows the true vehicle of blessing and salvation. Hashem has many conduits and messengers. Some of those messengers’ divinity is inversely proportional to their appearance.

 

What we have to do is wait, listen, and pray that our prospective exalter is the carrier of the true blessing. And then, we have to believe.

 

Quite often, we have ample opportunities to be blessed. Whether it is from the aunt who offers her graces at a family gathering or the simple beggar standing outside a doorway on a freezing winter day, blessings always come our way. Sometimes they come from the co-worker who cheers you on at the end of a long day or the mail carrier who greets you with the perfunctory “have a nice day” as he brings today’s tidings. Each blessing is an opportunity that knocks. And each acknowledgment and look to heaven may open the door to great salvation. The only thing left for us to do is let those blessings in.

 

Good Shabbos.

 

A Hospital Visit

Parshas Vayera

Posted on November 13, 2024 (5785) By Joshua Kruger | Series: Parsha Halacha for the Shabbos Table | Level: Intermediate Beginner

 

The Story:

Another day at school had finished. Sara met her older sister Mia in their usual spot in the school yard. Their Uncle Mendy had just undergone knee surgery that afternoon, and the girls had made plans to visit him.

 

“Ready for our trip?” asked Sara.

 

“Actually” hesitated Mia, “I don’t think it makes sense to go today. I just called the hospital and the nurse said that that Uncle Mendy just fell asleep.”

 

“But I want to do the mitzva of bikkur cholim” protested Sara.

 

“I do too” replied Mia, “but what good is the visit if Uncle Mendy is sleeping? It’s two extra bus rides to travel to the hospital and he won’t even know that we were there. Let’s wait till tomorrow.”

 

“Maybe you’re right” said Sara

 

Discussion:

Q: What connection does our story have with the parsha?

 

A: This week’s parsha begins with the mitzvah of bikkur cholim. We learn the mitzva directly from Hashem, who performs bikkur cholim for Avraham as he recovers from his bris mila (Rashi on Bereishis 18:1).

 

Q: What should the girls do?

 

A: Even if their uncle is sleeping, the mitzva of bikkur cholim still applies. A lot of people think that the term bikkur cholim means “to visit the sick”. Rav Yitzchak Hutner explains that the word “bikkur” actually means to check on the sick person to see how they can be helped (Iggros & Kesavim no. 36). In fact, in Israeli hospitals, the part of the day when the doctors go room to room to check on the patients is called the bikkur. Even if a person is sleeping, we can still check on them to make sure that they are alright. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch writes that this is the critical part of the mitzva (193:3).

 

Another essential part of bikkur cholim is the davening (Chochmas Adam 151:3). Being with the sick person helps us to daven for them with more kavana. Sara and Mia can daven for their uncle anywhere, but it is very special to daven in his room. This is because the shechina is present at bedside of sick people (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 193:4). These tefilos receive special attention from Hashem.

 

Back to Our Story:

Three bus rides later, the girls arrived at the hospital. They found their Uncle Mendy sleeping comfortably in his room. The girls took their sidurim out of their schoolbags, and quietly recited Tehilim for their uncle.

 

Later, as Mia scanned the room, she noted her uncle’s toothbrush on the floor. “It’s really dirty!

 

There’s a pharmacy next door. Let’s buy Uncle Mendy a new toothbrush”.

 

The next morning Uncle Mendy awoke and was surprised to see a shiny pink toothbrush next to his bed along with a note from Sara and Mia wishing him a refua sheleima.

 

(Written by Josh and Tammy Kruger, in collaboration with Rabbi Yehoshua Pfeffer of the Institute for Dayanim)