I heard an amazing, inspiring story recently from a friend of mine named Kalman. I had heard parts of his story before, but this past Shabbos he spoke about it at our shul’s kidush, which he sponsored as his yearly seudas hoda’a. He spoke and gave thanks to Hashem for all He has done for him. He was celebrating the anniversary of his rebirth.
Kalman’s story began close to twenty years ago in South Africa, where he is originally from. Coming from a secular Jewish family, he was a healthy, handsome, and successful young man. Not yet married, he had a bright future ahead of him when everything suddenly changed. He was jogging on a track in Johannesburg when he was attacked and robbed (the crime rate is still terrible, even worse than before). The attacker wasn’t satisfied, so he shot Kalman in the head. Kalman was left for dead. The emergency personnel arrived. They managed to stabilize him and rushed him to the hospital. The doctors gave him their best, and they were successful in keeping him alive. However, the grim prognosis was that he’d be blind for life, along with many other major complications. That was the week of parshas Eikev. (The police caught the attacker the following week.)
By the next week, parshas Re’ei, with the around-the-clock care, and involvement from the Jewish community in obtaining the best medical care, the doctors were able to rescue a small portion of Kalman’s vision. However, they didn’t think he’d progress any further or be successful in anything.
It took many months of treatment before he began to show improvement. The rehabilitation took even longer. He was physically changed, as he was now stooped over, and he is also “legally blind.” He can literally only read by holding a book in front of his nose. He has difficulty seeing anything more than ten feet away.
Today, baruch Hashem, Kalman is living in Eretz Yisrael, and married with several beautiful children. He works in old age homes in Yerushalayim, assisting the elderly.
Another major change that happened to Kalman is that he became more interested in the meaning and purpose of life. A Torah life to be exact. Religious Jews visited him in the hospital, where they spoke about all topics, but primarily about Torah and Judaism. Per Kalman’s request, they helped him to put on tefillin for the first time in his life. They taught him to pray, and he slowly became a Torah observant Jew. He began to have a Torah view of the purpose of life, and began to focus on noticing and appreciating all the kindness which Hashem did and does for him. Each step of his survival and healing he counted as separate miracles. Kalman realized that the whole turn of events changed his life for the better. Questions of “why” fell away, as he saw that life-changing incident was for him indeed a life-changing incident, and he was able to grab hold of it and grow and accomplish with it.
We see this today, as there are so many not-yet-religious or minimally religious Jews who’ve drawn closer to Judaism since the attack on October 7. We see how so many of the survivors from the attacks, and also how some of the freed hostages, have been drawn closer to Judaism since then. I’ve heard at least three, if not more, freed hostages say that if not for the attack, they would never have discovered the treasure that there is for every Jew - a Torah lifestyle. They would have gone on with their lives, never having the giant push to make them think about our purpose here in this world. Now, they thank Hashem for the horror they went through, as they see for themselves how they are gaining and growing from it.
Kalman said that his like was saved on parshas Eikev. Eikev means “heel.” Rashi explains that we should not trample with our heel on any mitzvah, thinking that they’re unimportant. We should grab every mitzvah we can. Kalman felt that his life was saved by being grabbed by the “heel” and being given a second opportunity at life - to treat every mitzvah with importance.
His vision was saved in the week of parshas Re’ei. Re’ei means to see, and he was being given vision to see Hashem’s kindness and generosity, and to choose the correct path. As the parsha begins, “See that I’m placing before you the choice of brachah or klalah, blessings or curses, and choose the way of the blessings!”
The Ben-Ish Chai teaches the halachos of the brachah of hagomel in parshas Eikev for those who are required to thank Hashem after being saved from various life-threatening situations. For Kalman, when he found this Ben-Ish Chai, it moved him to work on thanking Hashem - not just for saving his life, but for every aspect of his life. When things work out, even the smallest things, to always thank Hashem.
Thank you, Hashem, for saving the Jews in Eretz Yisrael this past Sunday morning, when the Israeli air force succeeded in preventing the major attack by Hezbollah! A miracle they were so successful.
This past erev Pesach, after the major attack from Iran was blocked, it was revealed that the fifth most searched google word in Israel during the attack was Tehilim. The fourth most searched word was Mizmor l’toda - a song of thanks (from Tehillim/shacharis). Perhaps I’m wrong, but I had this thought. Who needs to google Tehilim? Most religious Jews will either have several Tehilims lying around, also in their safe rooms, or they’ll have it on their phones. So, who’s searching Tehilim? Mostly not-yet-religious Jews. Who’s searching mizmor l’toda? Well, even religious Jews may not know which perek in Tehilim it is (it’s 100), and they may not have thought to open a weekday sidur. Either way, everyone wanted to give thanks to Hashem for saving us!
Let us keep thanking Hashem for all the kindness He’s done for us until now, which itself is a segulah to receive more (more about that another time)! We should merit to thank Him for all the miracles He’ll do for us with the coming of Moshiach very soon!
By R’ Dovi Chaitovsky
