Four years off, thanks to a blessing from Rav Berland
Recently, at one of Rav Eliezer Berland’s gathering in the Israeli coastal city of Bat Yam, one of the men in the crowd came on stage to share his miraculous story of how Rav Berland had helped him to get out of jail. You can see him give over his story in his own words, in the original Hebrew, but here’s a brief translation of what he told the crowd:
“I did a pidyon nefesh [with Rav Berland], and Rav Berland, shlita, told me that I would be released much earlier than I thought. OK, I thought to myself that the Rav was giving me some chizzuk (spiritual strengthening) – but according to the laws of nature, there was nothing to talk about. I’d already been sentenced to a very long term.
“But I still strengthened myself, and tried to believe in the Rav.”
Solitary confinement
“I was being kept in solitary confinement. This is a room with no windows, and no other people. I’d spoken to Rav Berland on the telephone, and he’d told me that he was going to come and visit me. It was only after I’d hung up that it occurred to me that I’d forgotten to tell the Rav that it was impossible to come for a visit, unless you asked for a special permission. After all, this was solitary confinement, that we were talking about.
“But then I forgot all about the visit, and just went to sleep. During the night, the Rav came to me in a dream, in the middle of this solitary confinement room. It was a dream, but it seemed to be mamash happening in reality. The Rav spoke to me, and also gave me a blessing.
Things start to move
“At that stage, I’d already been in prison for seven years. I spoke to Rav Berland to ask for a blessing, and then he also told me a few things – and suddenly, the penny dropped. I called my lawyer, and I told him that he needed to check a few things on the cameras, about the incident I’d been involved with in the past. It seemed to me that now, we’d find some new information, something.
“Really, Hashem helped, and we found something on the cameras, that led to them reducing my sentence by four full years – exactly as the Rav had told me. So, thank you HaRav, shlita. And Hashem should bless him.”
