“The Rebbe will find a way to Answer”
A few weeks ago, while I was looking for something in my office desk drawer, an envelope fell out with a handwritten name on it: “Yisroel” (last name to be withheld), and “מוצש״ק פ׳ נח.” Inside the envelope was a dollar from the Rebbe. I then remembered that this dollar had been won by Sruly in a raffle (for Talmidim who participated in some kind of Tishri Mivtza, the details of which I don’t remember). I held onto the dollar for him until the next time he would travel home. The Talmid was not in Mesivta for Shiur Bais and Gimmel, and somehow he and I forgot about it, and he didn’t get it when he left in the summer. But the Rebbe does not forget, and perhaps it was even waiting for the right time to be delivered.
When I found the dollar, I thought to myself, “OK, I need to figure out where he is to get it to him”. Since things were super hectic at Mesivta (when aren’t they:)) with registration in full swing and closing out the Zman before Pesach, plus making a wedding (which, Boruch Hashem took place this week), I figured I’d try to locate him after the wedding during the Pesach break.
Last Tuesday, Chaf Hey Adar (3/25), as I was sitting in my office all day doing Zoom interviews for applicants for next year, I had a nagging thought in my head: What’s with Sruly’s dollar? It wouldn’t let up. So I asked myself, “Why on earth am I thinking about this? I told myself two weeks ago I would do it after the wedding. Why is this thought pestering me?” Then it dawned on me: “Maybe he needs it now.”
Not having seen or heard from Sruly in at least 10 years, I found Sruly’s older brother’s contact in my phone and reached out to him, and he gave me Sruly’s number. I WhatsApp’d Sruly a picture of the dollar and envelope, telling him that it’s his and I had found it, and I would like to send it to him.
Sruly responded right away, with excitement: “Yes, I remember this! This is amazing! We just had our first child—a baby girl—two days ago, and I feel like the Rebbe is sending his Bracha.” I’m like, “Cool, this is great. Send me your address and I will mail you the dollar.” Then Sruly (probably still trying to process what’s going on) shares that this is truly amazing because the baby had been in the NICU since birth, not able to breathe properly and on a feeding tube. He writes, “Now I feel calm, and the Rebbe is telling me everything will be OK.” I was speechless myself, trying to process what was going on. It was 5:30 PM, and I knew FedEx was closing soon. I quickly sent someone to FedEx, and a short time later Sruly had a tracking number. The dollar would be with him at 8 AM, and I wrote, “Please put it under the baby’s pillow.”
Sruly, still trying to unpack all this, writes back: “Last night, I wrote a Pan to the Rebbe, and boom, the answer.”
Baruch Hashem, the next morning the doctors said they would try to feed the baby and take her off the feeding tube. By Thursday night, the baby was home!
We need to know with certainty that these stories are happening around us all the time. Whenever we write, connect, and even when we don’t. The Rebbe knows, is listening and answering. Sometimes we merit to see it physically with our own eyes, in the most revealed way. Sometimes we merit to be the Shliach of the Rebbe, delivering the Bracha, and sometimes we merit to be the recipient of it. But it’s happening all the time. The more we connect, attain some Bitul, and become transparent, the more we become greater keilim (vessels) and receptacles, or vehicles and channels for these Brachos for ourselves, our families, and all those we come in contact with.
At this point, anything more I write will be less!
A Good Shabbos, A Freilichen Yud Alef Nissan and a Kosher and Freilichen Pesach to all!
Rabbi Sholom Halberstam
