Rabbi Yitzchak Hisiger (“Moments of Greatness”) relates the following story. Bernie and his wife Faye spent two weeks every January in Phoenix, Arizona. Bernie was a stock analyst for Morgan Stanley, whose 3700 employees worked out of the top floors of what used to be the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
When Bernie and Fay did not appear at their usual haunts during January, 2001, it was assumed that Bernie, like his fellow co-workers, was a victim of the 9/11 terrorist attack. When they appeared a few weeks later than their usual visit, everyone thought they were ghosts. How did Bernie possibly survive the conflagration?
Suffered Excruciating Pain During the Holocaust
Apparently, Bernie was a Holocaust survivor who had suffered excruciating pain as a subject of the infamous medical experiments which the accursed Nazis performed. The fiends used Bernie’s mouth as the target of their inhumane medical experiments. They would routinely cut into his gums and jawbone in order to extract teeth. This was all done without anesthesia, causing debilitating physical pain and lasting emotional trauma.
As a result, Bernie would not hear of the thought of going to the dentist. The mere mention of the word dentist sent him into a tailspin. Finally, the dental pain Bernie was experiencing became so intense that he agreed to go to the dentist. Faye called around and located a specialist who would see Bernie at 9:00 a.m. on September 11th. This was the first time that Bernie missed work. As a result of Divine Providence, Bernie was the only employee of his division at Morgan Stanley who survived that day. He was at the dentist when the planes came crashing into the towers.
The Catalyst for His Survival a Half Century Later
Tortured by the Nazis; subjected to indescribable pain, the cruelty that Bernie experienced fifty years earlier had actually been the catalyst that laid the groundwork for his survival. Hashem is in control. The Anochi that was brilliantly manifest during Yetzias Mitzrayim, the Egyptian exodus, is concealed beneath layers of chronic pain, shock and emotional trauma.
It may be concealed, but the Anochi is present, waiting to be revealed. We have to look for it – with our eyes, our hearts and our minds. In Likutei MoHaran, Horav Nachman Breslover, zl, reiterates his grandfather’s (Baal Shem Tov’s) words: V’afilu b’hastarah b’toch ha’hastarah; “Even in a concealment within a concealment, Hashem is certainly present. And behind the difficult things that stand before you, Ani omeid, Ani omeid, Ani omeid; “I stand, I stand, I stand.” הזאת השירה את לכם כתבו ועתה
