Elchanan [no relation to me despite our shared name] was an 18 year old yeshiva bochur in critical condition in Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital. He was unable to eat normally so he needed a nasogastric [feeding] tube in his nose [called in hebrew a "zunda"]. He had lost about 70 pounds and was a mere skeleton. In desperation the father arranged a meeting with Baba Elazar in Be'er Sheva. The Rav told him to collect 18 shekels from every brother and sister of the parents, their spouses and their children as well. The father was one of 8 children and the mother one of 9. The siblings had many of their own children so all together there were over 150 people. After the money was collected they were to use the money to buy tefillin for an orphan who was about to have a bar mitzva.
It wasn't easy collecting the money because some of the relatives lived in the US and Europe but all of the money eventually arrived via mail. Now he had to find an orphan whose bar mitzva was coming up [and then go to Bnei Brak to purchase tefillin]. Not an easy task.
Elchanan's father was sitting by his sons bedside with the bag of money while his son had one eye open and one eye closed. Then suddenly his cell phone rang. It was the principal of an institution in Kfar Chabad whom he had never met. The man said: "I heard you are a man of means and are able to perform acts of chesed. In our institution we have an orphaned boy who needs a pair of tefillin for his bar mitzva. We would love to buy them for him but right now things are tight and we are unable to help."
The father jumped. "I'll bring it today!" He rushed to Bnei Brak and purchased the tefillin and then off to Kfar Chabad to give the tefillin to the orphan. At 6pm he arrived and delivered the tefillin.
At 6pm they served dinner at Ichilov hospital. They were serving cabbage salad, a food that Elchanan really liked. He said to his mother "Call the doctor and tell him to take the zunda out of my nose." The mother quickly called the doctor who said "We cannot remove the zunda from your nose. Tomorrow we are doing a cat scan and you are not allowed to eat solid foods."
Elchanan said "If you don't take it out I will take it out on my own". The doctor refused. After the doctor left Elchanan started pulling the zunda off his nose. The nurse shrieked "What are you doing?" He explained that he wants to eat the cabbage salad. The nurse saw that he was determined so she helped remove the zunda from his nose. After not eating for three months he started to eat as if he had never eaten in his life.The doctor came in and rebuked the nurse for helping. "But look at how he is eating!" she said.
The next day they did a cat scan and the illness had disappeared completely.
This was eleven years ago. Today Elchanan is married with five children and is a rabbi in Rechovot.
זכות הצדיקים יעזור ויגן ויושיע!
Told by Ohad Mizrachi here.
