The Power of Pidyon - A chilling testimony of a person who performed a Pidyon Nefesh with our teacher, the esteemed tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, for his father who was ill - he shares with us how the pidyon helped his father.

"About five years ago, my father fell ill, and I decided to perform a pidyon with Rav Berland shlit"a. They told me the pidyon was 10,000 shekels, and I asked if it could be divided into 20 payments. The Rav shlit"a agreed - the payment for the pidyon began, and the illness came and went, back and forth. After 21 months, my father passed away."

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

"After the session ended, my brother called the one he had gone out with a month ago and asked about the one the medium said was her friend who had passed away. 'Don't ask, she passed away a month ago from a heart attack.'"

"Two weeks later, in another session with the medium, she told him, 'Now the neighbor's 10-year-old daughter, who was run over under the house with a bicycle, came in 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 with a bicycle and killed."

"A few more stories like this that my brother experienced with the medium were confirmed. On the eve of Passover two years ago, my father appeared to the medium during a session. He began to tell her things known only to family members, which she could not possibly have known."

"After the holiday, my brother called me and told me the story, and I told him that one thing intrigued me greatly - I performed the Pidyon Nefesh with Rav Berland for my father, and I want to know what it accomplished. I have emunah in the tzaddik, I believe in Rav Berland, and I want to know what the pidyon achieved."

"On the eve of Shavuot, my father appeared again, this time she asked him what the pidyon accomplished. It should be understood that my father observed half of Shabbat, meaning, on one hand, he would turn on the light and air conditioner, but he would not smoke or travel on Shabbat. My father answered the medium: 'The decree was there, the decree could not be annulled, but the pidyon sweetened my suffering, I was supposed to endure much greater suffering.'"

"My father continued and said that he was brought directly to Gan Eden and that he did not have to go through Gehinnom at all."