Knowing this secret can help us achieve the most wonderful things, in the most wonderful ways. The following story illustrates this. In the vicinity of the Gaon Rabbi Akiva Eiger, there resided a gravely ill patient who had been declared incurable by the attending physicians. One day, word got around that the king's renowned physician was scheduled to pass through their town, and the family of the ailing person managed to persuade him to pay a visit to their beloved relative. Their spirits were let down when even the king's skilled physician expressed little hope for the patient's recovery, echoing the grim prognosis of the local doctors.
Upon learning of this, Rabbi Akiva Eiger approached the king's physician and inquired about the hypothetical treatment that would be offered if the king were to be afflicted with the same illness. After a moment of hesitation, the physician revealed the existence of a potential cure - a specific type of fowl found only in the depths of the desert. However, obtaining this bird presented a formidable challenge, requiring a sizable expedition of soldiers to journey into the wilderness, face peril from wild animals, and potentially return empty-handed on multiple occasions. The physician concluded that such an endeavour was financially unfeasible for an ordinary person, rendering the patient, in his view, incurable.
When the physician left, Rabbi Akiva Eiger retreated to his study and begged Hashem for the medicine to save the patient. As he stood there in fervent prayer, a loud noise was heard from the chimney. Upon investigation, it was discovered that a strange fowl had fallen into it.
Rabbi Akiva took the bird to the patient and instructed them to cook it into a soup, instructing them to keep its feathers in a safe place. To everyone's astonishment, the patient began to recover and eventually regained full health.
Some time later, the king's physician returned to the neighbourhood and asked about the patient's condition. To his surprise, he discovered that the patient had been healed with a soup made from a peculiar bird. Initially sceptical, the physician was shown the feathers from the bird, which he thoroughly examined and confirmed to be from the same bird he had discussed with the Rav.
When he asked how they had managed to obtain this rare bird, the family recounted how Hashem had miraculously sent the bird in answer to the Rav's prayer. The doctor expressed his astonishment and told them, "Witness the potency of prayer. With his recitation of Tehillim alone, the Rav acquired something that even the king, with all his resources, soldiers, and wealth, sometimes struggles to attain."
(אוֹצָר הַסִּפּוּרִים כֶּרֶךְ יז עמ' יז)