I Had to Know What the Pidyon Nefesh Did for My Father - A Chilling Testimony

The power of a Pidyon - A chilling testimony from a man who performed a Pidyon Nefesh with our teacher, the holy tzaddik, Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a, for his father who had fallen ill - he shares with us what the Pidyon helped his father with.

"About five years ago, my father fell ill with a disease. I decided to perform a Pidyon with Rav Berland shlit"a. I was told that the Pidyon was 10,000 shekels; I asked if it was possible to divide it into 20 payments, and the Rav shlit"a agreed. The payment for the Pidyon began, and the illness went back and forth, again and again. After 21 months, my father passed away."

"About two years ago, my brother began meeting with a psychic. In one of the sessions, she told him that there was someone in his house. He asked about her nature, and the psychic replied that she was there because she was protected; she had passed away a month ago from cardiac arrest, and she knew him because he had gone out a month earlier with her friend."

"After the meeting ended, my brother called the woman he had gone out with a month earlier and asked about the one the psychic said was her friend who had passed away. 'Don't ask, she passed away a month ago from cardiac arrest.'"

"Two weeks later, in another meeting my brother had with the psychic, she told him, 'Now, the neighbors' 10-year-old girl, who was run over under the building on her bicycle, has entered through the balcony door.' The next day, my brother randomly met the girl's mother and inquired if she had a daughter who had passed away. She confirmed that she had a 10-year-old daughter who was run over on a bicycle and killed."

"Several more stories like this that he experienced with the psychic were verified by my brother. On the eve of Passover two years ago, my father appeared to the psychic while they were in a session. He began telling her things that were known only to family members, and there was no way she could have known them."

"On the night after the holiday, my brother called me and told me the story, and I told him that one thing intrigued me greatly - I had performed the Pidyon Nefesh with Rav Berland for my father, and I wanted to know what it had accomplished. I believe in the tzaddik, I believe in Rav Berland, and I wanted to know what the Pidyon had done."

"On the eve of Shavuot, my father appeared again. This time, she asked him what the Pidyon had accomplished. You must understand that my father was a 'half-Shabbat' observer; that is, on one hand, he would turn on lights and the air conditioning, but he would not smoke or drive on Shabbat. My father answered the psychic: 'The decree existed; the decree could not be annulled, but the Pidyon sweetened the suffering for me. I was supposed to undergo much greater suffering.'"

"My father continued and said that they brought him directly into Gan Eden and that he did not have to pass through Gehenom at all."