The baal hamaaseh tells the following story, which happened last year. "I underwent a complex heart surgery. It began at 6:00 am and was completed by 10:00 am. Then they brought me to the ICU, and following standard procedure, they kept me sedated for seven hours, hooked up to a breathing machine. After seven hours had passed, they tried to wake me up, but I didn't wake up. All other patients who had similar operations as I did were already awake, but I was still sleeping. My wife and the doctors were worried. One doctor sat next to my bed for several hours, because it was a dangerous situation.
All this time, my wife's phone rang several times, but she didn't answer the phone. She was very worried about me.
At 8:10 pm, I awoke. Relieved, my wife called back her sister right away, who had called so many times that day. She wanted to know why she called so many times. Her sister told her that the entire family had decided to make a conference call, to say Tehillim together for my health. She had called to tell her about it. The time for this conference call, to say Tehillim, was scheduled for 8:10 pm., the time I awoke.
We learn from this story that not only do actual tefillos help, but even setting a time for tefillah is powerful, and can bring yeshuos. Precisely at the time when they planned to daven, that is when I woke up.
Now that the surgery was successful, the rehabilitation phase began, a long road to get to complete health. The man says that the hospital sent him to a clinic in Tel Aviv, which specializes in the rehabilitation of the heart.
"I had already gone there several times to take tests, to prepare myself for being there. Around this time, I met a friend who learns with me in Kollel Chazon Ish. He told me that he needed heart surgery to insert a stent. His doctor advised him to go to the hospital in Bnei Brak, Mei'einey Hayeshuah. An askan, however, suggested that he would be better off going to a hospital in Tel Aviv, as he assumes there are better doctors there for this procedure. Nevertheless, my friend told me that he decided to go to Me'einey HaYeshuah in Bnei Brak. He explained that Bnei Brak is better for shemiras einayim. I asked him whether he was comfortable with his decision, because it was a complicated operation, and there are supposedly better doctors in Tel Aviv. He responded, "To go to Tel Aviv is a shaalah of d'Oraysahs, Torah prohibitions (of תתורו לא, not to stray after the eyes). I won't go for 'supposedly better' to Tel Aviv." When I heard his holy response, I decided to cancel my reservation at the Tel Aviv rehab center and go to a place where there are fewer tests for the eyes.
I said to my friend, "In your merit, I cancelled my appointments in Tel Aviv."
The friend replied, "Perhaps you want to know where I take the strength to make this decision? Sixty years ago, I learned in Kfar Chasidim, where Reb Eliyahu Lopian zt'l was the mashgiach. Once, Reb Eliyahu began the vaad (shiur of mussar), requesting that they bring him a Gemara (Bava Basra 57b). The Gemara discusses the pasuk ברע מראות עיניו עוצם. The Gemara says there that if a person has an option to go to a place where there is more tznius, and he doesn't do so, he is called a rasha. Reb Elyah Lopian began to shout. 'Rasha! He is a rasha!'. From then on, the call echoes in my ears, and it doesn’t give me respite. I will not go to a place where I can't guard my eyes."
(Here we must mention that when it comes to health considerations, a person must do what he must, because pikuach nefesh is כולה התורה כל דוחה, and a person should go where he must, and guard his eyes. However, this time it was permitted to go to a place where there were satisfactory experts, rather than go to places where there would surely be tests with the eyes. Each situation needs its own daas Torah, to know what the best approach is.)
Ben Yohoyada (Sotah 8a) states "ראיה is gematria גבורה, to hint that the primary strength of man with his war against the yetzer hara is with his looking, to be cautious where he looks. The eyes are where the yetzer hara rules, and that is how the yetzer hara comes into a person."
