A fascinating story with Rav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, took place on the day of the second round of elections in Yerushalayim one year. Early in the morning, a man who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease fell and broke his ribs. The patient was rushed to the hospital where the doctors had discovered that the broken ribs had caused a hole in the man’s lung, and he needed to undergo urgent surgery.
The patient’s family approached Rav Chaim Kanievsky and asked for a Brachah (blessing) for the success of the operation. In response, Rav Chaim asked, “Has this man voted today already?”
The family members replied that the patient was already hospitalized and he was awaiting his procedure. Rav Chaim again asked, “Has he voted already?” The family members understood that Rav Chaim was giving them a message, and that he saw the voting in the elections as a necessity, despite the urgent surgery.
Therefore, they contacted one of the medical organizations in the area and asked them to send an ambulance to take this man to the polling station in order to vote. It took a few hours, and the patient was then returned to the hospital and was now ready for surgery.
Before the procedure began, the doctors took another x-ray of his lungs, as requested by the surgeon. The x-ray stunned the doctors. The hole that they had seen in the lung had disappeared as if it was never even there before!
Reprinted from the Parshas Noach 5785 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
