Rabbi Aryeh Levine zt”l was known throughout the world for his unlimited ahavas Yisrael. One of his great acts of kindness was to daven on Shabbos with a group of Jewish prisoners, members of the Jewish underground, imprisoned in the Central Prison of Jerusalem in the Russian Compound during the British Mandate. The prisoners felt uplifted being around him, and they were touched that he wanted to spend Shabbos with them.
One Shabbos, a messenger burst into the prisoners’ “Beis Knesses.”
“Rabbi—you must come!” the man shouted. “Your daughter! Something terrible has happened.” Reb Aryeh hurried home and was sent to Shaarei Tzedek Hospital. There, his wife tearfully told him that she had found their daughter in bed, nearly comatose and burning with fever. The doctors had not yet found the cause.
Soon, around-the-clock Tehillim vigils were organized, and Reb Aryeh stayed by his daughter’s bedside. By the following Shabbos, nothing had changed. Reb Aryeh decided to leave the hospital to join his prison minyan. How could he keep from them the one thing that fed their neshamos?
The prisoners, who knew about Reb Aryeh’s daughter, were shocked to see him. When they asked about her condition, the Rav answered with all his heart, “Hashem will help.”
Shacharis moved along and the Torah reading began. The first aliyah went to Uri, a prisoner. The gabbai waited to hear what Uri would donate for his Mi Shebeirach. Peering at Reb Aryeh, Uri made a shocking offer – one day of his life to the Rav’s daughter. Reb Aryeh’s amazement at this outpouring of love kept growing as the “donation” repeated itself with each new aliyah.
When tough-talking Dov Tamari rose for Maftir, the room went silent. Would he, too, offer a day of his life? “What is our life in prison worth compared to the pain of Reb Aryeh and his daughter?” Dov asked. “I give the rest of my life to his little girl!”
Reb Aryeh looked around at these men. Whatever mistakes they had made, today they were like angels. When he returned to the hospital that day, he learned that his daughter had inexplicably opened her eyes. But to Reb Aryeh, it was not inexplicable at all.
