Akiva Shamai ben Ahava Rivka

Emailed to me today:

As Shabbos Chazon is a time of introspection when we recognize our need for achdus in Klal Yisroel, we are requesting your help to work as a klal for the sake of a single Yid.  We are asking you to dedicate shiurim and learning on Shabbos Chazon, particularly during the hours of 5 - 7 pm EDT, as a z’chus for a refuah shleima on behalf of Akiva Shamai ben Ahava Rivka, a young talmid chacham, husband and father who has been comatose for the past two months.  In order to better focus our kavana, please announce at the beginning of the shiur or session that the limud Torah should be a z’chus for him.  May we be zoche to refuos and yeshuos in the merit of your learning and show of achdus.

We hope that the following story will serve as an inspiration for the power of dedicating the merit of collective learning on behalf of those in need.

Hamodia - Magazine Section

Stories of Hashgacha Pratis and Niflaos HaBorei

6 TAMMUZ, 5764

JUNE 25, 2004

(Reprinted with permission)

 

Do You Believe in Miracles?

The recent Shabbos parashas Behaalosecha was overwhelmingly moving for many of us in the Raanana community. For it was three short years ago on this Shabbos, during the Torah reading of Behaalosecha, that a miracle took place in our midst. Yes, a real-life, blatant, plain-as-the-eye-can-see miracle happened in our town.

Approximately four weeks prior to that Shabbos, a three-year-old girl fell from a second- floor balcony, tragically landing headfirst on the concrete sidewalk below. The head trauma that she suffered was severe.  She was immediately taken to the Schneider Children’s Hospital, where the best of doctors could do little to alleviate the pressure in her brain that was climbing steadily to critical levels. As her brain swelled, she slipped into a coma that continued to deepen until finally, three weeks later on a Thursday afternoon, the doctors relinquished all hope of saving her life. Indeed, the neurosurgeons declared her brain damaged beyond repair and deemed her to be brain dead, clinging to life only by virtue of the life-support machine that was forcing oxygen into her lungs.

Two days later, on Shabbos parashas Behaalosecha, to the total bafflement of the medical staff, this girl began to breathe partially on her own.  She had begun the long and slow process of coming back to life. Admitting that this girl’s responses was a medical miracle, the doctors did not know whether this girl, alive though apparently in a “vegetative state,” would ever be able to regain normal motor and mental function.

Baruch Hashem, today this girl is a picture of perfect health. There seems to be no trace of any brain damage whatsoever, and she is functioning normally for a child her age.

Do you believe in miracles? I definitely do, the more so after experiencing this one and seeing it with my own eyes. I also believe more firmly in the timeless power of Rashi and Torah study after experiencing the uncanny connection between their kedusha and our story.

The first rashi in the parasha asks why the Torah refers to Aharon’s kindling of the menora with the word behaalosecha, “elevating” the lights. The answer is that the Torah is teaching us that Aharon should light the wicks deliberately, making sure to hold the shamash to the wick until the shalhevet, the flame of the wick, is strong enough to “stand up” by itself. Why is this significant? This little girl’s name is Shalhevet. That Shabbos, over two hundred Raanana residents were enjoying a spiritually uplifting weekend of intense Torah study and prayer in the city of Zichron Yaakov. That Shabbos morning, as Shalhevet was lying in a state of suspended death, the speaker lectured to the audience that perhaps Rashi is telling us that just as Aharon would light the wicks so that the shalhevet, the flame, would arise on its own, so too, our little Shalhevet will experience a miracle and will arise on her own.

Thereupon, it was decided that all of the spiritual energy of that Shabbaton would be dedicated to the recovery of Shalhevet. Upon our return to Raanana after Shabbos, her father revealed that Shalhevet had begun to partially breathe on her own at the very same time that we were reading this verse in the Torah on which Rashi comments.

Perhaps, you will say, it is presumptuous to connect this miracle to the power of Torah study. That’s because you don’t know the first half of the story. It turns out that while Shalhevet was lying in her coma for three weeks, many of us visited her father at the hospital to give him much-needed support. Only Hakadosh Baruch Hu, certainly not I, knows where he found the strength to concentrate on Torah study during the course of this terrible ordeal. But personally, I bear witness to the fact that whenever we would study Torah together, the condition in Shalhevet’s brain, measured by means of a pressure gauge, would show a slight improvement, reverting back to its critical state after the Torah study would cease.

This phenomenon occurred not once or twice, but many times over those first three weeks. Apparently, the strength of our Torah study was not sufficient to pull Shalhevet out of her coma. Evidently, the merit and power of our communal Torah study and prayers during the Shabbaton weekend was strong enough to bring Shalhevet out of her coma and allow her to begin her path to recovery.

Shalhevet was released from the hospital but was unable to walk, talk or perform the simplest of activities. Once again, the community rallied to her side and provided the necessary stimuli and encouragement, together with continued prayer and Torah study, to help bring her back to health.  A couple of w
eeks after arriving home, Shalhevet once again progressed in her mental and motor abilities, to the utter amazement of the medical community.

Seeing this adorable girl, who is healthy and happy today, Baruch Hashem, and pondering the events relating to her miraculous recovery, should lead the rational, intelligent Jew to conclude that the Jewish people, the Torah and Hashem Yisbarach are undeniably bound together as one. When we all work together, we, together with the strength of Hakadosh Baruch Hu and His Torah, can make the greatest of miracles happen.

Shalhevet’s family was told that they should publicize this story. May G-d bless Shalhevet and her entire family with health, happiness and nachas!

Rabbi Dovid Horwitz

Raanana