A Remarkable Story: A Completely Blind Man Saw Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a for More Than Twenty Minutes During the Gathering in Hadera

The esteemed tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a travels night after night between the cities of Israel to bring Jews back to teshuvah (repentance). Among the holy words of Torah from the Rav shlit"a and the sacred melodies of those united around the tzaddik, numerous stories of miracles and divine providence accumulate. We present to you the remarkable story of Chanan Vaknin, as a firsthand testimony. "I have a friend named Shalom Yifrach, he is my study partner, and in recent years he has become completely blind, he cannot see anything. He constantly heard lofty stories about Rav Berland shlit"a and did not believe them. He did not believe that a thousand people stand with the Rav for 4-5 consecutive hours in prayer. He knew stories about unique tzaddikim who do this, but it was hard for him to believe that the Rav draws an entire congregation to such holy service."

"When Rav Berland arrived in Hadera, my friend Shalom told me he would make a self-sacrifice and come to the gathering, and indeed he waited 3 hours for the Rav's arrival. When the Rav arrived, a commotion erupted around him, as usually happens with the arrival of a powerful tzaddik like Rav Berland. Shalom asked the Rav's attendant to direct his head precisely to where the Rav was, at that time the Rav began to sing 'A'ufa Ashkuna'. Then the great wonder occurred, for 20 minutes my blind friend Shalom saw the Rav shlit"a clearly, after years of seeing nothing."

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"Two days after the gathering, my friend Shalom did not come to the kollel, and at the end of those days, he called me and said, 'Chanan, I haven't slept for two days, I saw Rav Berland and everyone, including my wife, thinks I've gone crazy.' I asked him, 'Tell me Shalom, how did you see the Rav?', I wanted to verify his words knowing that there are certain movements characteristic only of Rav Berland shlit"a. Those who know the Rav know that he constantly, without any pause, makes holy unifications with his fingers, moving them in the form of the letters of the Name of Hashem. Shalom described the Rav to me exactly and did not stop there but continued with a confession of the soul. 'Chanan, how did I doubt the Rav, all this time I didn't believe your stories about the Rav, I belittled them, but now, after seeing him, I know that everything is true'.