"The Doctors Said Half a Year, Rabbi Berland Said a Week"

The doctors determine that the damage is extensive and the recovery time will be long

"Hello, my name is Elitzur. When I was about 16 years old, I was involved in a fight and my nose was badly broken. The doctor at the hospital stitched me up and treated the fracture in my nose, but before releasing me home, he warned that for half a year I was forbidden from going outside and being exposed to the sun."

"At that time, I was in contact with Rabbi Yaakov Salama, so I asked him to mention my name to Rabbi Berland. At the same time, my parents asked Rabbi Salama to tell Rabbi Berland that if I changed my style of dress to something more respectable, Rabbi Berland should bless me to be healed."

Turning to Rabbi Berland to receive a blessing

"I approached the Rav in a letter," Rabbi Salama describes the story from his perspective. "In the letter, I described to the Rav the heartache caused to his parents due to their son's choice of clothing. I wrote to the Rav that the young man agreed that if the Rav promised him a complete recovery without any scarring, then he would be willing to change his attire. However, because it was very difficult for him, he was only willing to change his clothing for two months; I summarized his promise to the Rav."

"Our teacher, Rabbi Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days), told me to tell him to take two things upon himself: the mitzvah (commandment) of tzitzit (fringed garment) and the observance of Shabbat (the Sabbath). If he does, he promises him that within a week he will be healed and everything will pass. When I told him this, he cried and said to me with great emotion, 'Now I know that Rabbi Berland has Ruach HaKodesh (Divine inspiration). Because the moment you went to the Rav, I said to myself, "Is my clothing really what's important? After all, I go without tzitzit and without Shabbat!" Therefore, I told myself that if Rabbi Berland says this to me—especially since these are things my parents don't even know I'm lacking—I will immediately take it upon myself.'"

The miracle occurred against all the doctors' predictions

"I took the two mitzvos (commandments) upon myself as Rabbi Berland said, and within a week, what I didn't believe would happen occurred—the doctor told me I wouldn't leave the house for half a year, and after the Rav's promise, within a week everything completely disappeared," Elitzur relates.

"The doctors told him he has a strong body that overcomes illnesses quickly," Rabbi Salama chuckles at their words in hindsight.

The Rav ensures that Elitzur continues to fulfill the mitzvah

"When the Rav told me to take the aforementioned mitzvos upon myself, I felt that he truly has Ruach HaKodesh (Divine inspiration), as I had previously weakened in these commandments. Furthermore, after I took it upon myself to observe them, there were times when I was lenient with myself and left the house without tzitzit, but each time I would receive a blow from somewhere else. Since then, I don't mess around with it anymore."

"One day, Elitzur calls me urgently and asks me to prepare tzitzit for him, announcing that he is on his way to me. When he arrives, I ask him the reason for his urgency, and he, for his part, directs me to feel how his forehead is burning with fever," Rabbi Salama shares.

"I said to him, 'Should I bring you medicine to lower the fever?' He answered me, 'No way, bring me the tzitzit—that is the medicine!' Five minutes after I brought him the tzitzit, while we were still sitting in my house, we forgot that anything had even happened. Suddenly he says to me, 'I'm telling you, the Rav doesn't let me take off the tzitzit.'"