SAGE ADVICE SAVES LIVES
In the year tov-shin-ches, Rav Yochonon of Karlin-Stolin was in Teverya for Yom Kippur. A certain bochur, not a Stoliner Chassid, arrived from Kiryat Ata to spend the holy day with the Rebbe. To his astonishment, after Shacharis, the Rebbe Rav Yochonon approached him and ordered the bochur to go and make Kiddush and eat! Needless to say, the bochur did not do so on Yom Kippur! However, a short while later, again the Stoliner Rebbe, Rav Yochonon, came by and seeing as how his previous words had fallen on deaf ears, raised his voice and said, “Didn’t I tell you to go make Kiddush and eat?!” The bochur was frightened and taken quite aback at this outburst, and dared not disobey the Rebbe’s clear command.
The next day the bochur took to bed ill. He was so sick that he was rushed for emergency medical attention. When the doctors in the hospital concluded their examination, one of them asked the sick bochur, “I know that yesterday was Yom Kippur. Tell me the truth – did you fast yesterday?”
When the bochur admitted that he had in fact eaten as per the Rebbe’s orders, the doctor seemed surprised and relieved. “What good fortune! You are one lucky young man! It’s a good thing you ate when you did. In fact, had you fasted you probably wouldn’t be alive today!” (Me’orei Aish, chapter 8 - page 515)
THE SPELLING OF THE DECREE
Once, during a certain Rosh HaShana that the Rebbe, Rav Yochonon of Stolin, spent in Yerushalayim, a yungerman fainted in his home and no one was able to revive him. His family rushed to the Rebbe and begged him to rouse heavenly mercy on his behalf. The Rebbe ordered them to drip several drops of wine into his mouth, and this they did. To the amazement of all present, as soon as several drops of wine entered the unconscious man’s mouth he immediately woke up. By the next day he had completely recovered and he himself arrived in the Bais Medrash for davening.
Afterward, the Rebbe was overheard remarking, “I simply switched the letters of his heavenly decree from spelling negef, which means “struck down”, to gefen which means “fruit of the vine” – and I succeeded in saving his life through the wine. (Me’orei Aish, chapter 8 - page 515)
