A story in honor of Yud Alef Nissan, The Rebbe’s birthday.
by Rabbi Zushe Silberstein
I heard the following story from a cousin of mine, Aharon Dovid, a few years ago. My cousin is a chasid, but not a Lubavitcher chasid. He is a successful businessman and helped out the various institutions run by his rebbe by raising money for the institutions during his various business trips.
One time, my cousin was in Los Angeles on business. Walking down the street, he saw someone who looked familiar to him, though he couldn't remember from where. Then he remembered that they had been study-partners in yeshiva when they were much younger. They exchanged some small talk, and then the long-lost friend announced, "I am now a chasid of the Lubavitcher Rebbe." My cousin asked him, "How, why did this happen?"
"Listen to my story and then you will understand. After my wife and I married, we continued to live in the community in Brooklyn where we had both grown up. After about a half a year, I was offered a job in Los Angeles and we decided to move here even though we didn't know anyone.
"One day, my wife really wasn't feeling well. It seemed serious enough to go to the emergency room and that's what we did. After a few hours of examinations, tests, and waiting, the grim-faced doctor came out and spoke to me privately. 'From the tests that we did, your wife's condition seems complicated. According to what we see, your wife's disease is quite advanced. I recommend that you don't tell her anything; don't scare her. Go home. Get some sleep. Come back tomorrow and in the meantime we'll make sure that your wife is comfortable.'
"I didn't know what to do, to whom to turn. I went home and prayed and said Psalms from the depths of my heart. Suddenly I remembered, I am a chasid! I began to cry out, 'Rebbe, help me! Save my wife! Help me!'
"A few minutes passed and the phone rang! Right then, in the middle of the night! I thought perhaps it was someone from the hospital telling me there was good news. But when I picked up the phone it was a man who was speaking in Yiddish. He said, 'I am Hadakov. I am calling you because the Rebbe told me to call you to say that in the morning you should take your wife out of the hospital and go to Dr. -. The Rebbe gave his blessing that everything will be fine.' Then this Hadakov person said, 'Did you heard what I said?' I must have answered 'yes' because the next thing I knew there was a dial tone at the other end.
"I sat there wondering, 'Did I really get that phone call? Where do I know Hadakov from? Maybe I'm dreaming and hearing voices? Maybe it was a fantasy? I know what I heard but who is Hadakov?'
"I did not know who Hadakov was but I had a feeling that he was somehow connected to the Lubavitcher Rebbe. I remembered that there is a Lubavitcher chasid, an emissary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, here in Los Angeles named Rabbi Shmuel Dovid Raichik. I had never met him personally but he was renown as someone who was always helping out other people. Rumor had it that he would stay up the entire night saying the bed-time Shema.
"I looked up the number in the phone book. It was 3:30 a.m. but I called anyway. Rabbi Raichik answered the phone. I told him what had happened to my wife and the phone call from Rabbi Hadakov. Rabbi Raichik told me that Rabbi Hadakov was the Lubavitcher Rebbe's personal secretary. 'So do as he told you to do!' Rabbi Raichik said simply. I explained that I had been so surprised by the phone call that I was not actually sure what Rabbi Hadakov had told me to do. Rabbi Raichik gave me the phone number of the Rebbe's office. Even thought it was now 6:30 a.m. in New York, he urged me to call the Rebbe's office to clarify what I was supposed to do. I immediately called and the phone was answered by Rabbi Hadakov.
"I asked Rabbi Hadakov to repeat what he had told me: 'The Rebbe told me to call you and to say that in the morning, take your wife out of the hospital and go to Dr. - and the Rebbe gave his blessing that all would be well.' I then asked him, 'Why did you call me?' Rabbi Hadakov said, 'Because the Rebbe asked me to do so.' Bewildered, I asked, 'But I did not call the Rebbe so why did the Rebbe say to call me?' Rabbi Hadakov said, 'I can't answer that. That's between you and the Rebbe. I did what the Rebbe told me to do.'
"The next morning I went to the hospital and told the doctor I was taking my wife out. I had to sign all kinds of documents that said I take responsibility for her. I found the address of the doctor the Rebbe had referred me to. I called the office and the secretary said the next appointment would be in a year! I tried explaining that the matter was urgent but it did not help. I decided to take my wife straight to the doctor. We went to the doctor's office with no appointment. When I saw the doctor I told him desperately that he had to see my wife. The doctor was taken aback by my nerve but said that it was not possible without an appointment. I told him that the secretary had said the next available appointment is in a year. The doctor insisted that he could not see us. I told him, "The Lubavitcher Rebbe referred me to you."
"Upon hearing this, he said, 'I don't know who the Lubavitcher Rebbe is but your story is so unusual it interests me. Come into my office, I want to hear more.' My wife and I came into his office and we told him everything. In the end he agreed to treat my wife.'
My cousin Aharon Dovid had been standing on the street in Los Angeles talking to his old friend for quite a while. His friend concluded, "You are probably wondering what happened... Thank G-d, my wife recovered! We have been blessed with five children, and all is well!
But my cousin still did not understand. He asked his old friend, "But why did you become a chasid of the Lubavitcher Rebbe?" His friend said, "In the middle of the night, when I cried out, 'Rebbe, help me!' the Lubavitcher Rebbe is the one who answered me!"
Reprinted from Beis Moshiach Magazine. Rabbi Silberstein is director of Chabad Chabanel, in Montreal, Canada.
