Medical Miracle: A Woman with Throat Cancer [Says]

"I have known Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days) since I was a little girl. The Rav loves everyone; anyone who knows the Rav sees only miracles. I am a mother of 11 children and I fell ill with 'the illness' (cancer) on Rosh Hashanah three years ago. Even before Rosh Hashanah, the Rav spoke with me on the phone and told me that I was very sick, that I had a month left, and that he needed to treat me. At that time, I didn't understand the Rav because I didn't yet know I was sick. Today, after difficult treatments, my vocal cord was damaged, but Baruch Hashem (thank God), 'the snare is broken and we have escaped' (a reference to surviving a life-threatening situation)."

"Two months before I discovered the illness, my husband was saved by a miracle; he fell from a height and broke 13 ribs. Two weeks later, I arrived at Hadassah Hospital. I already felt that I was sick, but there they confirmed my fears and said that my illness was severe and almost hopeless. The next day, I was already in the operating room. Meanwhile, I had already lost 15 kg of my weight and decided I must reach the Rav. To say that I thought going to our teacher Rabbi Berland and to Uman would heal me and bring me to this conversation with you would be incorrect; I didn't believe it. First, they opened Gehennom (hell) for me and showed me where I was. I remember that entire period of suffering and agony; I am not ashamed to say that if I had Emunas Chachamim (faith in the Sages), I wouldn't have suffered so much."

"I knew what this illness was; I had already dealt with it in my family, among relatives and friends. The agreement with the hospital was that if I finally decided to undergo the surgery, I would then need to go through a series of 40 radiation treatments. The Rav called me and told me to come to him in Amsterdam. I actually went for two days with my husband. When you see the Rav, he is truly like an angel of Hashem Tzevaot (Lord of Hosts). The Rav was then at the Gottlieb home, and as soon as I saw the Rav, I felt some kind of faith and hope. The Rav gave me soup to eat; until then, I couldn't even swallow food, and suddenly I asked for another bowl."

"I told the Rav that I must undergo the surgery. The Rav told me not to worry, that he would send me good experts. I underwent another surgery at Beilinson Hospital. I stopped counting the miracles because they were so many. I will show you the CT scan showing my difficult condition before I met the Rav, and here is another CT scan showing the improvement afterward."

"The Rav taught me how to pray; by bringing me into the joy of prayer, he took me out of Katnut HaMochin (constricted consciousness or sadness)."

"One could say that my recovery began in Holland when I saw the Rav. Suddenly I thought to myself, 'Is it possible that such a tzaddik (righteous person) would relate to me?' And the Rav related to me with all his heart. Every day of my stay in Holland, the Rav blessed me. I would cry to the Rav to pray for me—after all, who can pray like the tzaddik? It can be seen in my medical documents: when I reached the Rav, the tumor had already spread, and when I returned, the tumor stopped spreading. I had two metastases toward the lung that had already passed the cartilage. Anyone who wants to understand the greatness of the 'Master of Prayer' should come on Shabbat and see the prayers with the Rav—hours upon hours of joy and melodies."

"The Rav is the pinnacle of holiness. I have known the Rav for 30 years and I have never entered his room for a private audience. All these years, I have lived two meters away from the Rav, and everyone knows that if there is a holy and guarded place in the world, it is the home of our teacher, the Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a."

Soon, with Hashem's help, the full video interview will be published.

The short interview can be seen on YouTube here https://youtu.be/IR1Ypa-i2T4 for women.