Rebbetzin Sara Leah looked out the window. A heavy fog
covered the street below and everything looked blurred. She
sighed. The familiar London view looked so different from the
view from the town of Kelm. How could they call this foggy
city beautiful?
She recalled her husband's words. "Even the righteous
dayonim can be misled by their eyes. It is important
not to judge by appearances and not be misled by one's
senses. At the time witnesses appear before the judges, they
must wear similar attire so that their judgment will be
accurate and equitable."
"How I wish we still lived in the little town of Kelm, a
place bare of comforts and riches but containing holiness and
purity!" she sighed. "In Kelm, this horrible sickness would
not have struck him."
From the misted window she turned her gaze to the bed on
which her ill husband lay. The esteemed gaon, R'
Eliyohu Lopian, was flushed with fever. His eyes were closed
as though he were asleep but his breathing was labored. Sora
Leah was alarmed. She rushed to the kitchen and hastily
filled a basin with cold water. She laid it near the bedside
and dipped a towel in it, squeezed out the water and placed
it on her husband's forehead. It soon dried out. While she
kept repeating these motions, her thoughts wandered to the
doctor who had paid a call not long before. The medications
he had prescribed were as good as useless. R' Elya's
condition was critical, with no sign of improvement.
"What shall I do?" she wailed to herself, replacing the wet
compress on his forehead, feeling helpless. And then a
thought struck her. It is obvious that I expect something
from the doctor who is only human. But only Hashem can cure!
Why am I not praying to Him with all my might?
She went over to the book-lined shelves, removed a
Tehillim and began from the beginning. Tears streamed
down her eyes as she recited chapter after chapter until she
could no longer see the words in front of her. She shut her
eyes and continued with a murmured prayer direct from the
heart. "Please, Hashem, send him a complete recovery!
Please..." Her lips kept on forming the words while the tears
cascaded down her cheeks until, exhausted, she fell
asleep.
She dreamt about Kelm and the beautifully lit yeshiva where
the students were diligently learning. How reassuring. She
dreamt she saw her husband, and she was there, too, busy
cooking and preparing food for the students. How she yearned
to be back there!
Abruptly, the dream ended and she awoke to the dreary
reality. She gazed upon her sick husband and moaned. She
recalled his words, "Repentance comes as a result of
suffering and pain. As the human body is afflicted, so does
the spirit of man rise to higher planes. The three years of
famine which Hashem brought upon Israel in the days of
Eliyohu were supposed to prepare the nation for
repentance..."
She jumped in alarm at a slight sound from the bed. "The
Jewish nation needs him!" she cried. "There are still so many
talmidim to be reached. So much for him to do, to
accomplish. Keep him alive, Hashem. If anyone has to die, let
it be me. He is my only reason for living, but I would
willingly sacrifice my life for his. Give him my years. Let
him live!"
The words came tumbling out of her lips and even as she
uttered them, she felt the strangeness of her wish. Could
such a request bring him a cure? Was that the way? No one
could fathom the ways of Heaven, but perhaps this
sacrifice...
My husband merited a visit from Eliyohu Hanovi. He surely
deserves to live. What can I say about myself?
But her very life was already a gift...
She remembered the pain and aches she had suffered once long
ago. The children had been so young at the time and they kept
crying when they saw her so ill. It must have been their
weeping together with her husband's prayers that had brought
about the sudden turn for the better.
Suddenly, a stranger had appeared at the door and had led her
husband outside to a field where a medicinal herb grew. He
had plucked some, brewed it and given it to Sora Leah and
shortly after, she recovered. It was no secret that the
stranger had been Eliyohu Hanovi.
How she wished that miracle would repeat itself to make her
husband well. "We need a miracle!" she whispered.
At that moment, R' Elya opened his eyes. "Call our sons," he
said weakly. "Send a cable to Telz, to the yeshiva, telling
them to come." His voice became inaudible and his eyes closed
once more.
What was the meaning of the request? She sent off the
telegram and within a few days, nine sons came to London and
stood by their father's bedside.
R' Elya miraculously recovered but now his wife became ill.
As she lay feverish and weak, she told the family about her
request. "I pray that my death be the family's cure and
salvation." She knew she had made the right choice.
The funeral took place soon after...
And then bad news spread throughout Europe. War had erupted.
Europe was threatened by Hitler y'sh and soon the
entire world was full of death and misery. European Jewry was
annihilated by the millions. The world lost all civil
appearance and countries were conquered by the German beasts.
The Torah world was almost completely destroyed.
The nine young boys, sons of R' Elya and the righteous Sora
Leah, were spared the worst horrors of the war. The telegram
their mother had sent them saved them just in time.
Eventually, the war ended and the Mashgiach, R' Elya Lopian,
continued to spread Torah and yiras shomayim in
England as well as in Eretz Yisroel. The loss of the great
European yeshivas left a deep gap in the Jewish world that
had to be filled. But R' Elya contributed his share through
his teachings and mussar, helping produce a new
generation of Torah scholars and righteous Jews.
