"That was a few years ago," says Rabbi Dr. Menachem Chaim Breyer, deputy medical director of Maayanei HaYeshua Hospital. "An elderly Jew was hospitalized with us, who was in a state of deterioration of the systems. It turned out that the cause of all the problems was kidney dysfunction. The amount of fluid his body secreted proved that his kidneys continued to deteriorate, and doctors had already said desperate for his life.
"I was not involved in his case from the beginning, but during an ongoing tour of the hospital, while taking an interest in the condition of the hospitalized as well as inquiring about new patients, I was exposed to this case. It was just after the ventilator that was connected to it stopped working, it had to be cleaned and then reconnected, but the doctors decided that if it was already disconnected from the machine, and he was able to breathe a little on his own, maybe it was a good opportunity to try to wean him off the machine. "I instructed the attending physician to continue with the program, but I demanded that they do regular tests to check his blood oxygen level: 'If there is a drop, even a slight, drop in the oxygen level, he is immediately connected to the machine,' I told them."
In another hospital, such a patient was no longer reconnected to the machine, because he was in complete deterioration, and medically he had no chance of living. But I have a very clear instruction from the Rabbi Karelitz, who in previous cases instructed me to carry out life-saving actions, even if it was only a rescue that would affect only a few hours or even just a few minutes, when the whole summer was over and the patient had no chance of living any longer. "Indeed, the level of oxygen in the blood dropped, and the patient was reconnected to the ventilator. It was Friday night, and I continued to monitor his condition. At the beginning of the following week, I started contacting specialist nephrologists, when we still didn't have a dialysis department at Maayane HaYeshua, and I consulted with the best doctors from other hospitals. I was told that there was no point in putting the patient on dialysis because his blood pressure was very low and dialysis could cause his death. We could only hope that his kidneys would recover on their own. But that didn't happen, they continued to deteriorate until they reached almost zero activity over the weekend."
On Thursday evening, after a week of accompanying the story, I decided to contact the family. I have a regular practice, according to which I act according to the instructions of the Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Silberstein shlita, who told me and other doctors at the hospital: 'If you see that the patient has no chance medically, inform the family and suggest that they take non-medical procedures. To pray, to receive good receipts, etc., because this is the best medicine.'
"I spoke to the patient's son. He heard this, and realized that his father no longer had any chance medically. I said to him: 'I don't know you, I don't know if you are a believing Jew or not, but I suggest that you start taking actions, tearing open the gates of heaven, maybe he will be merciful.' It turned out that the son was one of the directors of the Kirov Far Away, on behalf of the Rebbe of Belza. He heard this, thanked me and said that he would really try to follow my advice."
The next day, a few hours before Shabbat, he called me to hear if there was a change, and I had to disappoint him and tell him that there was no change. During Shabbat, I noticed that the deterioration was stopping. After a while, a slight recovery begins, and on Saturday night, the recovery continues. The phone rings and the son is on the line: 'How is Dad? Is there a recovery?' 'Did you do anything?' I ask him, 'Do you have an explanation for this unexpected recovery, which none of the doctors dreamed of?' "It turns out that it is. He did something.
"On Friday I spoke with the Rebbe of Belza," the Jew told me, "he heard that it was a serious problem with kidney function, and told me that there might be one way to save my father. To gather a group of people who until now had not been accustomed to recite the Asher Yatzer blessing when they came out of the bathroom, and to make them take it upon themselves to observe this blessing for my father's recovery. "Fortunately, I am the director of an organization for the distant rapprochement. That Shabbat we had a group of girls who were interested in Judaism, and who came to sit in Jerusalem as part of our activities. I took them to the Western Wall an hour before Shabbat, and there, near the remnant of our Temple, I told them my father's story, I explained to them the great importance of the Asher Yatzer blessing, and asked them to take it upon themselves to recite this blessing every time, for my father's recovery. They were very excited, and they unanimously took it upon themselves to fulfill this acceptance..."
The son had finished his story, and I already knew that we had an extraordinary medical miracle here. By the end of that week, the kidney function had improved in an unprecedented way. The kidneys were functioning exceptionally, and the father was back to his former strength."
At that time, I was with Rabbi Karelitz, shlita, and I told him this story. Rabbi Nissim listened attentively, and burst into tears with excitement. He urged me to tell this story to the Gedolei Yisrael in order to publicize the miracle, and so that the public would hear about it and know how important the blessing of Asher Yitzer is. "After a while, I also told this story to Maran Garayel Shteinman zt"l, and his grandson later told me that my great-grandfather was so moved by this story that at that time every important person who came to visit him got to hear this story from him. "But that's not where the story ends..."
After a while, I spoke with the son of that Jew, and he told me the following: A long time after that story, he participated in one of the organization's evenings, and the women who participated in the event went up to the stage and told their story, why they decided to repent. One of the girls who was with him at the Western Wall that Friday evening went up there and told the following story."
After she accepted the Asher Yitzer blessing, she stopped, and no longer continued to get closer to Judaism. This step of repentance no longer seemed as magical to her as it had been before, and she continued with her previous lifestyle. A few months later, she went out to a party on Friday night, of course, with a severe desecration of the Sabbath and other strange transgressions. During the party, she went to the bathroom. Afterwards, she washed her hands and recited the blessing of Asher Yatzer – this was the only mitzva she was careful to fulfill. "While she was blessing, she was suddenly struck by the realization that she was behaving in an abnormal way. She is here, desecrating Shabbat, doing things that the Torah forbids with severe warnings, and at the same time reciting the blessing of Asher Yitzer? How does it work together?? "She decided that it was hypocrisy, and that she could no longer hold the stick at both ends. She must decide whether to turn left or right. "And she decided – right. She got out of there and from that moment on she continued to grow stronger until she became fully repentant, and began to lead a distinctly religious lifestyle."
