The Bais Yisroel and the Kapischnitzer Rebbe
The Bais Yisroel of Ger, Rav Yisrael Alter, zt”l, was once walking through the old cemetery in Teveria, when he stopped by the Kever of Rav Avraham Yehoshua Heschel, zt”l, the Kapischnitzer Rebbe, and he told this story:
A woman came to the Kapischnitzer Rebbe, and with tears in her eyes she asked for a Brachah. She was very ill, and she begged the Rebbe to give her a Brachah that she would recover.
The Rebbe gave her a Brachah, but she wasn’t satisfied. She cried, “Promise me that I will recover!”
The Rebbe replied, “How can I promise that you will get better?”
But the women would not back down. She said, “I will not leave until you guarantee that I will get better and recover!” The Rebbe saw that the woman would not give up, so he gave her a warm Brachah, and promised her that she would recover.
After the woman had left, the Rebbe said to his Chasidim, “If she recovers, I will be overjoyed, but if she doesn’t, it will be an embarrassment for me. However, the important thing is that I calmed her down for the time being.
After a short while, the woman indeed had a complete recovery! The Kapischnitzer Rebbe said that it was due to her firm faith in Chachomim. The Bais Yisroel ended off the story and said, “But I say that she recovered in the Zechus of the embarrassment that the Kapischnitzer Rebbe was willing to go through, just to relieve the pain of a fellow Yid!”
Reprinted from the Parshas Noach 5785 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
