One venerable elder of Jerusalem, a man of great stature and tranquil understanding, once fell in his home. Alone and unable to rise, he lay there for a long while, afflicted with severe suffering and sharp pain.
After some time, a visitor came to see him and, finding him lying helpless, was much alarmed and hastened to help. To the visitor’s amazement, the elder was calm and serene. When asked how he felt, he answered with a smile and joy: “Baruch Hashem, I am alive and present. My hand hurts a bit, but I thank Hashem for every breath.”
Noticing that the man could not move his arm, the visitor feared it might be broken, and he took him at once to the hospital emergency room. The chief orthopedic surgeon listened to the account and at first dismissed the notion of a fracture, “This surely is not a break.”
“How can you be certain — have you taken an X-ray?” the visitor asked. The doctor replied, “We have not yet done a full X-ray, but when I see this elderly man so calm and smiling, even joking with us, it is clear he is not suffering a fracture — a man with a real break would not be able to rejoice so.”
Still, they performed the X-ray. To the doctor’s astonishment, it revealed a serious fracture. The orthopedist left amazed, saying, “This is no ordinary man! I cannot understand how someone can smile, laugh, and be joyful while bearing such a terrible fracture and great pain.”
The elder’s son, summoned to the hospital, found his father full of joy and tranquility. When the son offered him a steaming cup of coffee, the father recited the blessing aloud with deep feeling: “Shehakol nihyah bidvaro.” Then he turned to his son and taught him what the pious have taught in the Mishnah — that the phrase “for all” (as in the teaching about the blessing) truly means for all that may befall a person. If one declares that “everything came to be by His word” — that nothing is accidental and all is the decree and will of Divine Providence — then one is delivered from the troubles of the world. (Berachos 40b).
