The miraculous incident recounted by the author of the deed contains a razor-sharp message about how serious the harm to a Jew is, and all the more so when it comes to a student. Teachers and rabbis, and anyone who deals with education, must read the following lines very carefully, and instill the lesson and conclusions in their hearts, and understand that things are not simple at all.
One night," he recalls, "and here I see in my dream my parents, together with my grandmother and other family members who have already passed away. Their faces would light up, and my late father would turn to me and say, 'They want to summon you for an inquiry in the heavenly court, in the matter of the one who harmed you forty-three years ago.' Before I could reply, my father goes on to say that 'they asked to invite you two years ago. But then you were only fifty-eight. Now that you are sixty years old, they want to invite you for an inquiry. When I heard this, I trembled to my heart, and I told them that I did not want to come, because I was afraid that they would leave me there...My parents reassured me and told me, with a smiling face, that 'it's so good here, that when you get there, you'll want to stay, but it's better to stay downstairs.' They explained to me that in any case they wanted to invite me for clarification because the only person who knew the details accurately was me, as I was the author of the deed. "So what should I do?" I asked. Turn to the rabbi and ask what to do, said my father. "Which rabbi should you approach?" - To Rabbi Kanievsky, shlita, "Father."I woke up at four o'clock in the morning, and here was a dream. I was terrified, and I didn't know how to get out of it, especially when I remembered very well the details of that incident that took place forty-three years ago, when I was studying in a yeshiva, and I also knew that the sentence that came out of my late father's mouth, that 'they asked to invite you two years ago, is also true. It was the exciting incident that haunted me all these years, and it did not leave me for a single moment.
One day I entered the morning Seder in the yeshiva. All three hundred young men were already in the hall and began to study. Suddenly one of the friends came up to me and claimed that the Gemara I was studying was his, and demanded that I return it to him. Since I knew for sure that he was wrong, and that the Gemara belonged to me, I refused to listen to him. The friend turned to the rabbi sitting at the end of the hall, and the rabbi called me, and without asking questions or clarifying the truth, demanded that I return the Gemara to my friend. "But the Gemara is mine," you tried to argue, but before I could finish the sentence, I was slapped so hard that I was thrown out of my seat a few meters away. I remember that the echo of the slap was so loud that all the students stopped studying, and there was complete silence in the hall.Imagine what an injury it is – three hundred young men see my disgrace, and are sure that I did what should not be done, and therefore I was slapped with such force. After all, there can be no other way! Of course, I was insulted and hurt to the bottom of my soul, and the event hurt me to the point of horror. I left the yeshiva hall, and the Rosh Yeshiva came up to me, and when he heard what was going on, he understood the terrible injustice that had been done to me, and began to calm me down. Being a wise man, The Rosh Yeshiva did this wisely, and did not try to defend that Rabbi, but said, 'I very much understand your heart, but I am sure that there was a misunderstanding here.'After he added some more reassuring words, I asked him not to take the story out, and not to pass it on to anyone. He emphasized that he did not demand it from me, "but if you succeed, I ask you not to tell it." At that moment, I decided to obey the words of the Rosh Yeshiva, and even when I returned home for a few days of rest, and my parents asked me what had happened, I evaded them, and did not tell them a word. I kept the story in my heart. And in retrospect, I really don't know how I managed to do that.It was such a traumatic event that I do not understand how I could not bear to tell anyone. But the reality is that since then, for the entire forty-three years, I have not told anyone about it. Until the dream on Friday night, I did not share it with my most prominent relatives.
The Rav did not ask me for forgiveness, and I tried to return to my normal life, and to forget about the story. Since the nature of life is that it is flowing and flowing, I continued the flow of life as well, and I have come to this day. But the tremendous feeling of slap accompanied me in every step I took. About four years ago, I missed the yeshiva where I had studied in my youth, and I went to visit it, and I even dared to knock on the door of that Rabbi's house. His wife opened the door, and said that he was not feeling well, but when I insisted on meeting him, she took me into his room, and then I was shocked to see that he was constantly throwing his head at Anna, in frightening movements. The picture that appeared to me was as if Man-Dahu was standing in front of the man. to his right and left, and constantly slapping both of his cheeks, which is the reason for the frequent movement of the head in both directions. When I left, the family members told me that these head movements had started suddenly some time ago. They visited several doctors, and they didn't diagnose any disease, not Parkinson's, or any similar disease, and they didn't know the meaning of the phenomenon. I wanted to say that I knew the reason, but I held back, and I stopped myself, and I didn't say a word.
Two years ago, a few days after I turned fifty-eight, I felt chest pain, and when I rushed to the HMO they told me that I was in the midst of a severe heart attack, and they called an ambulance that scared me to Tel Hashomer, where I was told that if I had arrived half an hour later, there might have been nothing to do. And suddenly came the dream about the "summons for clarification before the heavenly court." And about the fact that 'two years ago they asked to call you...' I felt that there were things in my body, and as soon as I woke up at night, I hurried to the house of Maran Rav Kanievsky, shlit"a, and prayed at Lederman.After the prayers, I asked to be received by the Gaon Shlita, but the family wanted to reject me, claiming that it was not the time to receive the congregation. When I told them that "from heaven send me to him," and I described what happened in the dream, and that my late father said that I would consult with the Grach, he took me into his room. When the Rav heard this, he said that false dreams would speak. I told him that despite this, I felt that there was something real here. He instructed me to convene a beit din and say that I forgive that rabbi with complete forgiveness. And indeed, the Gra Mann convened two more Torah scholars, and I told them that I was forgiven. And I still didn't feel calm. I told the Gra Mann that I wanted to go to that Rabbi and say his request for forgiveness to him. The Gra went to Maran and asked if there was any point in this, and he agreed.
When I knock on the door of the Rabbi's house on Sunday morning, there is no sound and no answer. One of the neighbors, who heard the continuous knocking, came out and told me that on Friday night, his neighbor had been rushed to the hospital, and he was lying in the intensive care unit. I ran to the hospital and went straight to the patient's bed, where his wife and sons were standing. I found out that his condition was serious, and that he was only a few hours away. I went over to his son and told him that I wanted to go to his father's house for a moment. And say something to him. The son flatly rejected my request, saying that his father was fully conscious, but his condition was so serious that it was simply not appropriate to talk to him. I added and told him that I wanted to remind his father of a certain act in which he sinned against me, and the son was even more frightened. "Is this the time to talk to him about sins? After all, he might take these things to heart, and take even more risks! Then I told him briefly about the dream, and said that the Grach had agreed that I should come, and that perhaps it would actually contribute to the improvement of his condition.The family agreed to let me in.
I approached his bed and saw that his condition was indeed very serious. With great effort, I asked him if he remembered that act that hurt me very much, and the patient shook his head in agreement. I said out loud that I forgave him for this, and I even added that I also ask forgiveness from him for not listening to his voice when he asked me to give the Gemara to that friend [although, as mentioned, the Gemara was: Mine]. The patient explicitly said that he forgave me for that, and then I saw that he did understand all the things I had said to him, and the Fellowship of Forgiveness was exceptionally successful. I felt relieved, and I went home.
And here I am, just stepping on the doorstep, and the phone rings. One of the Ram's children told me in an excited voice that his father's condition had suddenly improved, and the doctors – who had only recently informed us of the worst – were also shocked to see the dramatic improvement in his condition, and did not understand how it happened.Forty-eight hours later, the sick man returned home, and the family members told of another miracle that had occurred. Their father's strange head movements had completely stopped, and he was once again like a human being. And just as no one understood why the head had begun to move, so too there was no natural explanation for the cessation of movement.I asked the Gra to ask Maran the Grach whether it is possible to attribute the miracle that happened to my Rabbi to the movements of the head – to the request for forgiveness, and he answered in the affirmative, saying that it is quite possible to relate the things to each other.
A week later, I went again to visit the Rebbe at his home, and I found a healthy and happy man. We repeated the request for forgiveness again, and everything went smoothly. It must be remembered that my Rebbe is eighty-seven years old, and despite everything, he regained his strength, which proves that the great physical weakness and the illness that befell him was due to that event, forty-three years ago.
During the visit, we suddenly remembered that there is also a third side to the whole story, and that he is the friend because of whom what happened happened. We felt the need to look for him as well, and to share what happened in the last few days. It took a long time for us to find him, and then it became clear to us that this man had not been in good health for many years, and that his mind had gone wrong. We came to his house and tried to support him, and to remind him of what happened with the Gemara in the yeshiva hall, but he did not know what was done. And who knows if he was not punished by Heaven."
There is a judge and there is a judge, and even after so many years, when a person may think that the sin may have been "forgotten," they make sure to remind him that everything is written and signed.
