21) The Note Opened at the Fresh Grave

Everyone in Hadera knows the following story well, and we heard its wondrous details from Rabbi Chanan Zaknin of Givat Olga. In the year 5778 (2018), Morinu HaRav (Rabbi Berland) arrived in Givat Olga at a small synagogue of Breslov Chassidim and wrote the final letters of a Torah scroll there. This scroll was written for the elevation of the soul of the woman after whom the synagogue was named. And this is how the story unfolded.

Over a year earlier, the woman, whose name was Tomi Mantina bas Sarina of the Abulafia family, fell ill. Her condition was critical, and she needed an open miracle to continue living. Every day she survived was considered a miracle in the eyes of the doctors, but family friends advised them to turn to the greatest doctor of all—the tzaddik of the generation, Morinu HaRav Eliezer Berland shlit"a. The woman's son, a precious Jew named Doron, who was far from observing Torah and mitzvos at the time, agreed to go to the tzaddik. He resolved in his heart to do everything possible for his mother's healing, even if it meant going to tzaddikim and the like—something he likely would not have done had his mother's condition not been so severe.

Morinu HaRav told Doron to bring 10,000 NIS as a Pidyon Nefesh (redemption of the soul) for his mother, and she would recover. Doron brought Morinu HaRav the entire sum for the Pidyon, and immediately upon receiving it, the Rav told Doron to wait a moment and not to rush. The Rav took a piece of paper and a pen, quickly wrote a few words on the page, then folded the note tightly and instructed Doron not to open it until the 14th of Adar. Doron felt in his heart that the moment he left the Rav's house, he would open the note. He knew his curious nature and realized he wouldn't be able to hold out for even a single day, let alone three months until the 14th of Adar. However, Morinu HaRav noticed Doron's thoughts and warned him again not to dare open the note, as doing so could cause harm.

Three months passed, during which there were ups and downs in the woman's condition, but after three months, the decree was sealed, and she returned her soul to her Creator. Doron was broken. He had strengthened himself with emunah (faith) in the power of tzaddikim, but he couldn't face his friends, whose gazes would question him about how, despite giving a Pidyon to the tzaddik, he was still walking behind his mother's bier. He thought about staying home and not attending the funeral. But at the last moment, Rabbi Lior Kachlon shlit"a, one of the greatest figures bringing the masses to teshuvah (repentance) in Hadera, called him. He told Doron to come to the funeral but to stand at a distance from the center of events. Doron arrived at the funeral, and just a moment before the men of the Chevra Kadisha (burial society) lowered his mother's body into her resting place, Doron remembered that the Rav had told him to open the note on the 14th of Adar. Today was the 14th of Adar—he had heard this explicitly from the Chevra Kadisha and from the rabbi who eulogized his mother in the funeral hall. He approached his mother's bier, asked them to wait a moment with the burial, and opened the note that had been sitting in his pocket for three full months.

In the note written by Morinu HaRav, it said: "Today, the 14th of Adar, the soul of the woman Tomi Mantina bas Sarina ascends to Heaven, and Esther bas Avichail (Queen Esther) is coming to receive her soul."

All the relatives present at the funeral stood in shock. They felt they were now witnessing a miracle and a revelation of the Ruach HaKodesh (Divine Inspiration) of the tzaddik of the generation, and they all had thoughts of teshuvah. They understood that the Rav had seen what would happen three months prior and had drawn down three more months of life for her. Doron returned in complete teshuvah and quickly became R' Doron Abulafia, who does a great deal to bring the masses to merit and draw distant Jews closer in the city of Hadera and Givat Olga. Within a year of her passing, Doron, together with his friends, managed to establish a synagogue in his mother's name and even write a Torah scroll for the elevation of her soul. The Torah scroll was brought in on the yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing), and Morinu HaRav Eliezer Berland was invited to be the guest of honor for the family and the community, and was honored with writing the final letters in the Torah scroll. Thus, the circle was closed. May her soul be bound in the bond of life, Amen.

From the book "Pele Elyon, Part 3"