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“But as much as they would afflict it, so it would increase and so it would burst forth; and they were disgusted because of the Children of Israel.”

 – Sh’mos 1:12

The following story is told by Rabbi Pinchas Woolstone of Sydney, Australia.

While I was in New York, I was approached by a prestigious chasidic rabbi who told me about a family that was searching for their long-lost daughter. She had been born and raised in Boro Park and had married there. Unfortunately, the marriage ended badly, but her husband – for whatever reason – refused to give her a get (divorce). After this went on for a period of time, the wife suddenly disappeared. Her family had since learned that she had gone to Australia, but they had no idea where in Australia. Since I was from Australia, the rabbi who approached me thought that maybe I could help them bring their daughter back to her people.

And Hashem said to Avram, “Go for yourself from your land, from your birth place, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

– B’reishis 12:1

The great Rebbe of Berditchev, R’ Levi Yitzchok (Roskov) zt”l, was renowned for his tremendous erudition in Torah, his love for every single Jew, and his advocacy before the Heavenly court on behalf of the Jewish people. R’ Levi Yitzchok was known as the “defense attorney” for the Jewish people, because it was believed that he could intercede on their behalf before Hashem. He was, therefore, one of the most beloved leaders of Eastern European Jewry, and he made the name of the little village of Berditchev everlastingly famous.

“You shall count for yourselves – from the morrow of the rest day (Pesach), from the day when you bring the omer (a measure of volume) of the waving – seven weeks, they shall be complete. Until the morrow of the seventh week you shall count, fifty days…” (Leviticus 23:15-16)

It is well known that when people went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l to receive a brachah or ask a sh’eilah, in many cases he will tell them to either cut their hair short or grow their beard. He also tells people to keep their pei’os out, not behind their ears. He was once asked by his son-in-law, Rav Mordechai Tzivyon shlita, why he told a person with facial issues to grow his beard and that Rav Chaim responded, “A beard is a person’s hadras panim (glory of the face). If one grows his beard, he has a real hadras panim. His issues that affect his hadras panim will be healed when he grows a beard.”