HASHGACHA PRATIS
This week’s Parsha, Vayeitzei, opens with our father Yaakov on his way to his uncle Lavan where he hoped to find a wife and begin his family. He knew that his family would be the beginning of the Jewish people. He also knew that Lavan was a man of evil design and recognized the dangers he would encounter living with him and raising his family there. With this in mind HaShem came to Yaakov and promised him that He will be with him and provide His direct Providence wherever he should go. HaShem’s promise of hashgacha pratis, personal providence, has been the legacy of our people which we inherited from our fathers. To the extent that a Jew places his trust and reliance on HaShem, to that extent HaShem supports and provides for him. As the prophet Yirmiyahu writes “Blessed is the person who relies upon HaShem, and HaShem will be his support.”
I am fortunate to know Reb Avraham Dovid Weisz shlit’a whose every moment of life is a proclamation of HaShem’s hashgacha pratis. I am taking the liberty of using the space dedicated for SHABBOS: CELEBRATING HASHEM’S CREATION to share a part of Avraham Dovid’s life story. His story is truly celebrating HaShem’s creation and His ongoing hashgacha.
May this be an inspiration to all who read it and may it be a merit for Reb Avraham Dovid and his wife and their beautiful family that they should enjoy each other for many long, happy and healthy years together.
Fifteen years ago Avraham Dovid Weisz fell ill to ALS otherwise known as Lou Gherig’s disease in which there were very few muscles in his body that he could control. Since then, he lives on a trachea ventilator and has no control of his extremities. Even smiling is barely possible. The only muscles HaShem left for him to control are his eyes. By use of computer technology and other devices Reb Avraham Dovid has been able to communicate and to study Torah very many hours a day. He does not need to take off time to eat since he is not able to do so. His feeding tube takes care of that. Avraham Dovid’s daily schedule consists of a couple hours for prayer and the rest for Torah study . Over the past 15 years he has acquired volumes of Torah knowledge, has completed the entire Shas and many books of commentaries.
On the first day of Succos 2019 Avraham Dovid went into septic shock. He was rushed to the Columbia-Presbyterian hospital where his doctors told Mrs. Weisz that there was no hope and she should prepare for the worst. The family, recognizing the se-verity of the condition, decided to take the case to Dr. Farhad. Dr. Farhad, a neurologist, practicing at Mass General Hospital had previously rejected Mrs. Weisz’s request to take her husband as a patient. The reason he rejected taking Avraham Dovid was because he felt there was no chance of success. In spite of his rejection Mrs. Weisz hoped that perhaps he would reconsider so she sent him an email – hoping hope against hope that there HaShem will help.
In the meantime Avraham Dovid decided that he should commit himself to studying the commentary of the Ohr Hachaim Haka-dosh on Chumash. He felt that in the merit of the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh he will recover. After havdalah, he asked for his son in Monsey to come to Manhattan with an Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh so that he could begin studying it. The following day Mrs. Weisz received an email from Dr. Farhad that he and his team developed a protocol using IVIG among other treatments specifically for Avraham Dovid. They wanted him to come ASAP. Six weeks after Succos Avraham Dovid returned home from Boston and resumed his daily schedule. His medical staff at Columbia conceded that it had to have been a miracle. True to his commitment, Avraham Dovid completed the entire Ohr Hachaim before this past Rosh Hashanah.
A short time ago, Reb Avraham Dovid was experiencing small medical complications and the Weisz’s were very concerned. Abraham Dovid and his wife recognized that this is a message from the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh to make the siyum. The Tues-day before Parshas Chayei Sarah (Nov 10) Avraham Dovid asked his wife to please arrange a siyum that motzei Shabbos (Nov 14). She understood the importance of this siyum and got to work on it. She immediately called Rabbi Mordechai Schiff, a rebbe in the Stolin Yeshiva to please speak at the siyum. Naturally, he could not refuse the request and agreed. However, HaShem had made different plans for who the speaker would be.
Rabbi Schiff never missed maariv at his Yeshiva. That Wednesday, the day after Mrs. Weisz asked him to speak, he happened to miss the maariv in his yeshiva and went across the street to catch a minyan at a shtiebel where he had never been before. He was told that maariv would begin in 15 minutes. While waiting, Rabbi Schiff found a copy of Ohr HaChaim on the shelf with a compendium of commentaries. As he was looking in this sefer, a person approached him if he enjoyed the sefer because the publisher of that commentary, Rabbi Moshe Schwartz, who lives in Yerushalayim just arrived in America and will be at the shtiebel for maariv. Rabbi Schiff was amazed at the remarkable hashga-cha pratis. He had never missed maariv at Yeshiva. He never stepped into this shtiebel. Now, a few days before Avraham Dovid’s siyum on Ohr HaChaim he should meet the person who has been perhaps the greatest distributor of Ohr HaChaim in the world! Naturally, after maariv Rabbi Schiff met Reb Moshe Schwartz and told him about the siyum taking place motzei Shabbos. He asked the guest to join him and to speak at the si-yum. The guest accepted the offer and joined Avraham Dovid’s siyum.
Reb Moshe got up to speak in front of the crowd of 100 guests and began with his own story explaining why he dedicated his life to spreading the teaching of the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh.
“My wife and I were married many years and were unable to have children. I spoke with the greatest medical advisors in Israel and was told that there was nothing they could do. I was advised to go to America and meet with Rabbi Bochner from Bonei Olam which I did. He took me to several fertility specialists and they all told me that there was more chance that hair would grow on my palm than us having a child. My despair was unbearable and I headed to my Rebbe, the Amshinover Rebbe, and cried to him to pray for my wife and me. He told me that I should commit myself to studying the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh and in his merit I will have a child.”
“From my Rebbe I immediately went to the monument of the Ohr Hachaim and lay beside it crying to HaShem. I told myself that I would not only study Ohr Hachaim for myself but I would make it available and readable for the entire Jewish people. If I bring children to the Ohr Hachaim then may HaShem bring children to me.”
After relaying this story he took out a picture of his family of sev-en beautiful children. Reb Moshe pointed out that the gematria of Avraham Dovid chai is the same gematria as Ohr Hachaim. There are many more details which add much more color to this vivid picture of hashgacha pratis.
Have a very safe and very wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind