The following is a wonderful story adapted from "There Is No One Else Except Him" that teaches us the power of a blessing and how careful we should be to recite the blessing word for word. Much has already been written and said about the special virtue of the Asher Yatzer blessing for healing and salvation, a virtue that was brought in the name of the author of Seder Ha-Yom and even recommended by many of the world's great scholars. The wonderful story before us, told first-hand by the author of the action, can serve as a living example of the effectiveness of this segula:
Colitis is a word that most of us are unfamiliar with, but for quite a few people it symbolizes a terrible nightmare. A disease for which doctors are tired of finding a cure, and have not even found, as of now, a finding that would explain the cause of its appearance. If any intestinal problem is known to cause a lot of suffering, for those who are familiar with the symptoms of colitis and are aware of the pain and anguish that follows, the mere mention of its name causes chills. Colitis is an inflammation caused by the immune system, which is usually supposed to protect our body. This inflammation damages the tissues of the colon and causes severe attacks of pain, accompanied by very severe side effects that significantly impair the patients' daily functioning. In many cases, the outbreak of the disease may lead to prolonged hospitalization, and sometimes even require a difficult surgery to remove the colon.
When the subject of our story, a Torah scholar who teaches Torah to many, awoke severe intestinal problems, he thought that it was a transient phenomenon. When the days passed and his condition did not improve, the yeshiva student went to the doctor. After a series of comprehensive examinations, the doctor decided: "You have contracted colitis." Naturally," the doctor explained, "there is no way to completely cure this disease.
Anyone who suffers from it must prepare for the challenges that await him throughout his life." However, for those of us who know that he was endowed with a great and excessive degree of faith and fear of God, this decisive assertion did not undermine his faith. For a moment he was not prepared to accept the doctors' dark predictions and give in to their dictates. "G-d is the greatest doctor," the student thought to himself, "and the cure for every disease is in His hands. I am only tasked with correcting what needs to be corrected and strengthening myself with things that need strengthening, and I am sure that if I do this, the Holy One, blessed be He, will send me His help from above and heal me with a complete healing."
It goes without saying that the yeshiva student did not refrain from accepting the doctors' recommendations to adopt new lifestyle habits that include a vegan diet and a fundamental change in dietary habits. At the same time, however, he made his mind and searched for something significant spiritual in which he could become stronger. After consulting with his rabbis, he decided to adopt the virtue of the author of Seder Ha-Yom: to strengthen oneself by thanking God with the blessing of Asher Yatzer – by reciting it with great intention and from the point of writing. Even when he failed once or twice, he did not give up, but continued to hold on to his acceptance without weakness, and from day to day he felt how he was revealing additional layers in the depth of this wonderful blessing, and that the feelings of gratitude to the Holy One, blessed be He, were rising within him more and more. Some time passed and our acquaintance went to the doctor for routine check-ups. When the results came, he let out a cry of surprise. Finally, after a long period of deterioration, encouraging signs of improvement in the condition were discovered. From that day on, he began to feel relief. Slowly, the pain and severe symptoms began to let go of his body, and a few months later they ceased completely. Although the tests he conducted afterwards indicated that the disease was still nesting in his body, since its symptoms had completely ceased from him, this fact did not bother him too much. He returned to functioning as a human being, and gradually the memory of the disease faded and was forgotten.
The thirteen years that had passed since his illness had managed to numb him a little from the same reception he had received during his illness. Once again, he found himself reciting the Asher Yatzer blessing in a hurry, like many others, and the reminder of this was not long in coming. The illness attacked him again in full force, and with it the terrible suffering and pain. This time he decided to turn to the greatest expert in the country, who serves as the head of a department in one of the prestigious hospitals. But he had too much to offer. Like his predecessor, he also informed the yeshiva student that there was no cure for his illness and that the pain could be alleviated to some extent, but not to prevent them from reappearing. He did not need a stronger reminder than this. This time, too, he decided not to give in to the dictates of the doctors, but to strengthen himself again with the blessing of Asher Yatzer, and also with the blessing of "Healing." He was not surprised, when some time later the symptoms disappeared as if they had never existed. But if that were not enough, in a re-examination performed for him by the same senior doctor, they were both surprised to discover that the intestines had completely healed. The disease blossomed and disappeared from his body in an inexplicable way, something that even senior doctors agreed was a real miracle. "Thus," the student concluded his story, "I saw that the greatest power to heal his pain is in the hands of man himself. If he only takes upon himself to strengthen himself and correct what needs to be corrected, then his salvation is assured to him from heaven, from the hands of the doctor of all flesh and wonders to do."
