Elul 1959/ט"תשי: The Brisker Rav zt'l was ill, and Reb Shach zt'l spent a lot of time at his bedside. One day, the Brisker Rav said that he heard from his father, Reb Chaim of Brisk zt'l, that Meron is an ideal place for tefillah, and therefore, he requests that people should daven for him there.
Rav Shach immediately went to Ponovezh, spoke with the roshei yeshiva, and fourteen outstanding talmidei chachamim (including the Steipler zt'l, who requested to come along) delevart to Meron. They recited the entire sefer Tehillim that Thursday night.
On Sunday, Rav Shach returned to the Brisker Rav’s, and the Brisker Rav asked whether people davened for him in Meron. Rav Shach told him about the tefillah they held for him and shared the names of those who participated. The Brisker Rav's eyes shone with joy and gratitude.
(Rav Shach later commented that it was a neis he arranged it because otherwise, what would he answer the Brisker Rav?)
I heard the following story from Reb S. G. Shlita, a resident of Williamsburg, New York, who was directly involved in it.
Year 5768: His rebbetzin became ill with multiple sclerosis and could hardly walk. Her condition deteriorated, and by 5777, she had lost most of her eyesight. She could barely see out of the corner of one eye.
The best doctors said that the nerves that connect the eye to the brain were almost entirely dead and that it was impossible to heal her.
That year, they traveled to Meron for Lag b'Omer. The Skulener Rebbe shlita (before he became rebbe) advised that she should daven next to the tzion (not outside the building). With the aid of two women who pushed her wheelchair, they passed all police and barriers and got to the tzion.
Two and a half hours later, she called her husband and said, "I said the entire Tehillim, and I am ready to leave."
The husband didn't catch on to the miracle that had just occurred. She could only read with special, thick glasses and only very large print. And even then, she could only read slowly and with immense difficulty. But this time, she read the entire Tehillim.
They returned to New York and went to their doctor. He shined a flashlight into her eyes and shouted, "She can see!" He was shocked because he knew it was medically impossible for her to see again. The doctor sent them to an expert in the field.
(Had they tried themselves, it would have taken a year to get in, but when the doctor requested it, an appointment was arranged immediately.)
This specialist (who until then was a sworn atheist) was shocked. In all medical history, nothing like this had ever occurred. "How did this happen?" he wanted to know.
The husband told the doctor about their tefillos in Meron. For the first time in his life, the doctor admitted that there saw Hashem.
The husband said, "Now that she can see, can you help her walk again?"
The doctor replied, "Our clinics can't be able to help her walk, but it seems that you have found a way to heal her."
I heard the following story from the baal hamaaseh (to the person to whom it occurred); he is a prominent talmid chacham and a very special Yid, who frequents Meron.
He told me that he was on dialysis for ten hours every night due to two failing kidneys. After paying $180,000 to be eligible for a kidney transplant and making all the necessary preparations, he was ready for the transplant. Before the surgery, he went to Meron, hoping to be cured without a transplant. He said, "Reb Shimon, we were taught that many miracles happen to you (see Meilah 17.). Also, you said that you could save everyone from judgment. I have two failing kidneys, and I need a miracle that my kidneys should begin working again."
He was asking for a great miracle because when a kidney stops working, it usually doesn't begin working again. But for Hashem, everything is possible, and in Reb Shimon's merit, he believed it could occur. Miraculously, his kidneys began working again, and he no longer needed dialysis.
In 1949 ט"תש: Due to the ongoing war, the roads to Yerushalayim were closed. The roads were open only one day every two weeks. A bachur named Gedalyah Meirovitz was shot in the leg outside of Yerushalayim and couldn’t get to Shaarei Tzedek Hospital in Yerushalayim for two weeks. By the time he got there, his leg was severely infected, and the doctors recommended amputation r”l.
Lag b'Omer was approaching, and Meirovitz asked his friends to bring him to Meron. "It’s impossible," his friends told him. And indeed, it was quite impossible. In those days, a trip to Meron could take an entire day, with changing busses several times. Moreover, he would need to travel with his foot raised the whole time due to his condition. How could they make the long trip with him in his condition?
But the bachur begged them until they agreed to do whatever they could. They rented a truck so he could lie down, and that’s how they traveled to Meron.
At the tzion, the bachur said the following prayer, "The Nazis killed my entire family. I am the only survivor. I need to get married so that my family will have a continuation. But if I lose a leg, who will want to marry me?"
After their tefillos by the tzion, they went to the courtyard to dance. Meirovitz wanted to dance and felt that a miracle would happen to him. He put his arms over the shoulders of two of his friends, and they danced with him. Suddenly, he let go of his friends, and he danced on his own. Due to the dancing, the dressing from his foot fell off, and a healthy foot was revealed!
Reb Asher Zelig Margolis zt’l writes that once he had a lot of pain in his throat, and the doctors recommended surgery. He came to Meron and said the entire Tehillim. While saying the Tehillim, he began coughing violently and couldn’t stop. He continued coughing until he coughed up the blood and puss blocking his throat, and he was healed.
In the winter of 5775, a woman from the Toldos Aharon community felt immense pressure on her eye, weakening her eyesight. The doctor instructed her to take a CT scan, which she did on Lag b'Omer morning. The results would come in the next day, and in the meanwhile, she traveled to Meron, where the rebbe of Toldos Aharon makes a hadlakah (bonfire). She could hardly see the hadlakah due to poor vision and cried and prayed for a yeshua. The next morning, she could see well. Then the doctor called and told her there was dangerous swelling above the eye and they must operate. She told him she was feeling well... And indeed, she was.
A friend who often visits Meron told me, "I have witnessed many miracles in Meron. I will tell you one story. I have children living in America. They had a young child who was developing very slowly. He was three years old but couldn't talk or control his bowels. Two miracles happened on the flight back to America: The child suddenly spoke, telling his mother he needed to use the bathroom."
A family of talmidei chachamim heard that the head of their family was diagnosed with cancer, r'l. All men of the family traveled to Meron, studying Torah the entire way there, and in Meron, they completed the entire Tehillim. The father took another test, and the doctors informed him that the dreaded disease had mysteriously disappeared.
Two close friends studied every morning from three o'clock a.m. until Shacharis. One of them became ill with cancer and was extremely weak. His chavrusah would visit him and talk to him about emunah. Once, in the middle of their conversation, the friend said, "Lag b'Omer is only a month and a half away. We traveled to Meron together the past few years; let’s do it again this year."
The ill man looked at him and said, "The doctors are telling me I have only two months to live. I don’t know if I will be alive when Lag b'Omer comes around."
A few weeks later, he called his ill friend, "I’m buying a ticket to Eretz Yisrael today. I want to be in Meron for Lag b'Omer. Should I buy a ticket for you too? The doctors aren’t stopping you from traveling, so why shouldn't you come along?"
The sick man agreed.
That year Lag b'Omer was on Motzei Shabbos. As soon as Shabbos was over, they went to the tzion to daven. This occurred twenty-five years ago when the crowds weren’t as large as today. Most of the chassidim were still with their Rebbe for the hadlakah, and the tzion wasn't that full, so they could get inside and daven. The ill man sat down near the tzion and poured his heart out in tefillah. He said the entire sefer Tehillim, from beginning to end. When he finished, he turned to his friend and said, "I feel that I've just removed a large stone off my heart, and I'm leaving the stone here."
They returned to America. The doctors decided to operate to save his life. When they opened his body, they didn’t find a sign of the illness. They took a biopsy and sent it to the lab to see if any remnant of the disease remained. Nothing was there. He was completely well. His first phone call was to his friend who encouraged him to go to Meron on Lag b'Omer. He cried tears of gratitude. His friend heard him crying into the phone and feared that he had received negative news from the doctors. When he finally found his voice, he explained that they were tears of happiness.
Both of these men told me the story and concluded, "Since then, we go to Meron every year, and before we leave, we say, 'Reb Shimon, next year again!'"
