Asher Elmaliach, Critically Injured in the Terror Attack at the Jerusalem

"After 15 days in which he hovered between life and death, Asher Elmaliach, the security guard who was stabbed in his heart at the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem, is beginning to wake up," thus begins the report from the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation. When skipping to 1:53 in the report, one hears what tens of thousands in Israel already know from personal experience: "We gave a pidyon to Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, and as soon as the Rav received the pidyon, he said, 'That is it, now he will be healthy'—and so it was."

In an interview conducted on the global Breslov line (02-800-8-800) with Rabbi Shlomo Elmaliach, the brother of the wounded Asher Elmaliach, we receive a shocking picture of the incident. "The terrorist was so well-disguised as an Israeli that it was impossible to identify him as a terrorist. The terrorist had already successfully passed the security check at the entrance to the Central Bus Station, but for some reason, my brother Asher grabbed his coat and asked him for his documents. The terrorist went into shock, especially since it turned out he was a resident of Shechem, the son of one of the officers in the Palestinian Authority. My brother asked him to take off his coat, but he did not reveal that he had a thick, long knife, sharpened well on both sides. The terrorist, seeing that my brother was checking his documents, lunged at him with malice and plunged the entire knife into his heart. Any person who sustains such a thing dies without a doubt (the description is shocking and this is not the place to detail it). The professors told us that one in a million survives such a stabbing."

"From then until now, miracles upon miracles have visited us, behind all of which stands our teacher, the holy tzaddik Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a. It started a month before the stabbing, when my brother Asher donated a large sum to me for the publication of the commentary I wrote on the 'Etz Chaim.' Through his persuasion, I arrived at the Central Bus Station to receive the money, and there he asked me to bless him, for 'charity saves from death.' In the merit of that charity, there was an MDA woman at the time of the stabbing who saved him from bleeding to death. When we told the Rav, the Rav wanted us to transfer a pidyon immediately, but the family did not understand the magnitude of the virtue of giving a pidyon to a tzaddik. My son Nachman, who saw that the matter of the pidyon was being delayed, told the Rav that he would give the pidyon himself, but because of my brother's critical condition, the Rav said that the pidyon was not enough."

"In reality, my brother already had a hole in his lung, broken ribs, and additional bodily injuries along with the terrible stabbing in the heart. At three in the morning, my brother passed away and they only managed to revive him with an external respirator. My son ran again to our teacher Rav Berland shlit"a, who told him, 'Asher is in critical condition and you must immediately bring him a sum for a pidyon nefesh within a few minutes.' My son and my son-in-law exerted themselves to raise the pidyon, gave it to the Rav, and indeed his condition recovered. I immediately turned to them and told them that under no circumstances would I allow the loans they took for the pidyon to fall on them, and I am taking everything upon myself. In retrospect, it turned out that the entire sum that my brother gave me a month before the stabbing was the exact sum that was transferred for the pidyon to Rav Berland shlit"a. The amazing thing is that as soon as I gave the money for the pidyon, I immediately felt a sweetening that cannot be described in words. I immediately called everyone and told them that Asher was alive, but everyone thought I had gone crazy because they knew his condition was almost impossible."

"The next day, the hole from the knife in his heart closed, truly in a miraculous way. Another day passed and again a huge miracle, as the hole in his lung also closed; the matter was publicized throughout the country. The doctors were in shock that he began to make contact with us. The head professor admitted to me that my brother's entire recovery was in an unnatural way. The merit of the charity and the self-sacrifice stood for my brother, but without a doubt, the merit of our teacher Rav Berland is what stood more than anything."