Weekly Chasidic Story #742 (s5772-21 / 21 Shvat 5772)

The Full Name

The Rebbe HaRayatz of Lubavitch blessed that the critically ill man should have a complete recovery and also suggested that he add to his name.

Connections (2): Seasonal - see Editor's Note at end; Weekly Torah - healing is discussed

 

The Full Name


Once, in the 1940's, a Jew living in Florida named Yosef Wolf had to undergo surgery. The doctors told him that it would be a simple procedure and quick, and that after a relatively short rest he would be able to return to his full schedule. And so it happened. The operation was brief and successful, and after a few days of recuperation in the hospital, he was released to go home.

However, after he was home only a number of hours, he began to feel a lot of pain, and the pain kept growing and becoming more intense. He saw that the place of the surgery was greatly swollen, which appeared to be the result of a serious infection there.

The infection worsened, the pain kept increasing, and he soon found himself hospitalized a second time. But this time the doctors were unable to find a solution for his problem. Whatever they tried did not help. His medical condition worsened quickly, to the extent that the doctors told him sadly that his days were numbered.

His family was totally shocked to find out that nothing more could be done medically to help him. They resolved to do all that was in their power to help him spiritually. They increased and intensified their prayers, and gave a lot of tzedaka ("charity").

Mr. Wolf's son-in-law in the New York area decided to consult the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef-Yitzchak Shneersohn, of blessed memory. The Rebbe blessed that the critically ill man should have a complete recovery. Also, he suggested that to his name Yosef be added the name "Zelig" ("happy" in Yiddish). The relatives hurried to comply with the Rebbe's instructions, and added the second name.

Amazingly, in just a short interval after the name change, they received word that there was a recognizable improvement in the sick man's condition!

Over the next few days, Mr. Yosef Wolf, now called Yosef-Zelig Wolf, continued to recover and become stronger. Before a week passed, he was released to go home with a clean bill of health. Not a trace remained of the deadly infection which had taken such a strict toll of his health. The astonished doctors could barely believe the drastic change that had occurred in front of their eyes: after they had given up hope, a man on his death-bed had returned to being a completely healthy person.

Yosef-Zelig Wolf returned to his regular life, full of gratitude and praise to G-d Al-mighty.

A few months later, he decided to go to pray at the gravesite of his grandmother. He felt a special closeness to her, because he had been named Yosef after her father. Much to his great astonishment and delight, he realized that he had never paid sufficient attention to the inscription on the tombstone. Engraved on it was (in Hebrew) "Here lies Sasya bas Yosef-Zelig"!

Up until that point he had been certain that his grandfather's name was simply "Yosef." Now it had been made clear to him that his full name, his real name, was Yosef-Zelig. Suddenly the current Yosef-Zelig was struck by why the Rebbe requested that particularly "Zelig" be added to his name - in order to restore him to his true name, since his parents had intended to name him for his great-grandfather, and that this would facilitate his healing.

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Source: Translated freely from "Mamtak L'Shabbat"(#253) a colorful weekly page for children by Chabad of Be'ersheva.

Editor's note (worth reading!):
Listen to the story we have in our family relating to this story!
1. My mother-in-law passed away this month, a few hours before the Hebrew date of Yud Shvat, which is the yahrzeit of the Rebbe HaRayatz, as the Rebbe in the above story is referred to today.
2. Her name was Golda bas Yosef-Zelig (HaLevi).
3. It was not always known that was his name. When my father-in-law - may he rest in peace - would make a blessing for her in the synagogue over the Torah, he would say "Golda bas Yosef.".
4. Then someone in the family -- almost for certain it was this writer - recalled or noticed on his tombstone that his name was Yosef-Zelig.
5. The funeral and "Sitting Shiva" was to be in Jerusalem. We live in Tsfat. I called my son, Yehuda, who currently lives with his family in the apartment of my in-laws in the Old City of Jerusalem, and asked him to put up signs in the Old City, where my in-laws were known. He told the sign maker, "Golda bas Yosef," forgetting about the "Zelig"!
6. Yehuda went down to the Western Wall to pray and to work (offering tefillin to whoever wants to wrap them). As soon as he got there, someone ran up to him and said excitedly, "Here! You have to read this great story about the Rebbe HaRayatz" (whose yahrzeit was that day), and handed him the two-sided page from Be'ersheva in which one column of the second side was the above story. He quickly arranged to adjust the signs
7. There are not usually publications for children at the Kotel. Even more rarely are there ever publications from Be'ersheva at the Kotel.
Divine Providence strikes again!

Biographic note:
Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (12 Tammuz 1880-10 Shvat 1950), known as the Rebbe Rayatz, was the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, from 1920 to 1950. He established a network of Jewish educational institutions and Chassidim that was the single most significant factor for the preservation of Judaism during the dread reign of the communist Soviets. . In 1940 he moved to the USA, established Chabad world-wide headquarters in Brooklyn and launched the global campaign to renew and spread Judaism in all languages and in every corner of the world, the campaign continued and expanded so remarkably successfully by his son-in-law and successor, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

 

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