What about life insurance?
Health is important. We hear about debilitating illnesses, sudden injuries, and suffering. Hospitals contain lots of people who were just functioning normally until very recently. Young people pass away in the prime of their lives.
There isn’t really anything we can do. We can eat right, exercise regularly and follow the doctor’s orders. Even so, our health is not in our hands.
On the morning of Shavu’os, when the Aseres Hadibros are being read from the Sefer Torah, the gates of health and healing will swing open for the world! So revealed Moreinu Posek Hador Harav Elyashiv zatzal.
He set a special Seder Tefilah for these moments, to be recited in front of the Sefer Torah when it is open to the pesukim of Aseres Hadibros.
This year, too, the Gedolei Hador will daven for you at this exalted moment. In their shuls, after a full night of learning, they will dedicate a special Tefilah to Vaad Harabbanim’s donors. For you, for your children, for your parents.
This is the best protection you can get.
It’s Shavu’os morning. A drowsy quiet envelops the shuls. The baal koreh is leining the parshah of Matan Torah, and he reaches the pesukim of Aseres Hadibros.
The world is silent. No bird is chirping, and no cow is mooing. The mountain is covered by a Divine cloud, the sound of the shofar grows stronger and stronger. Moshe speaks…
And then, like at Maamad Har Sinai, all the sick among Klal Yisrael are healed!
This is what Moreinu Posek Hador Harav Hagaon Yosef Shalom Elyashiv zatzal said: “At the time of the reading of Aseres Hadibros, one can ask for a refuah sheleimah for all kinds of sicknesses – even those that have no chance to be cured b’derech hateva!”
After two hundred and ten years of tortured slavery, most of the Jewish people were maimed in various ways. Some were deaf, others were missing limbs. There were those who were blind. Many suffered from intestinal illnesses due to poor nutrition and starvation. Some went mad from seeing babies and children placed between bricks and smeared over with mortar.
Hakadosh Baruch Hu wished to give the Torah to His people.
But what kind of people?
Scarred, limping slaves?
It says in the Seforim Hakedoshim that at Matan Torah, the Jewish people became the King’s legion. It was not fitting for the royal legion to be crippled and maimed. So, Hashem sent the angel Michael to heal the Jewish people.
And like it was then, so it is every year at the time of the reading of the Aseres Hadibros. There is a ruach of Refuah Sheleimah in the world, a ruach of health and strength for avodas Hashem.
On Shavu’os morning, when the pesukim of Aseres Hadibros come up, the Gedolei Hador will daven for the health of Vaad Harabbanim’s donors. After a night that is all Torah learning, in front of the Sefer Torah open to Matan Torah, the Gedolei Torah will daven with the power of Torah, and their decree will be fulfilled!
How important is it to us to be healthy and strong? We hear about various illnesses, we are concerned if we sense a change in our general wellbeing, or if we hear repeated complaints from a child. There are so many departments in the hospitals, with so many patients…
Gedolei Yisrael are standing next to the Sefer Torah, a reverent silence envelops the shul, the steady night’s learning forged the way. And from there, the Tefilah for Vaad Harabbanim’s donors ascends to Shamayim. To protect and to heal.
Just like at Matan Torah, so too now, you can be zocheh to Refuah Sheleimah! Complete recovery, even if all the test results point the other direction. Hashem can turn things around in a flash. Your case is not too complicated for Him. He holds up the entire world at every moment; He can easily heal a chronic condition or a mental illness.
Who would say no to a brocho for health? Is there anyone immortal out there, who is immune to all known and not-yet-discovered illnesses? Life can turn upside down very fast. All it takes is a health problem, even one that is not life-threatening, to destroy our regular daily routine…
One donation to Vaad Harabbanim can save us from all this. Send in a contribution to Vaad Harabbanim, the tzedakah fund of the Gedolei Hador themselves. This money will buy medication and pay for essential treatments for a sick father or mother. It will buy medical equipment for a crippled child. This money will finance therapy and treatment for broken orphans. We will help our needy brethren, and thereby merit, midah k’neged midah, to receive refuah and good health from our Father in Heaven.
This is not financing for medications beyond the scope of the health plan, or for expensive operations; this is not financial support for the period of disability. This is the insurance of the Borei Olam, the Healer of all flesh, that He should remove from us all sickness and affliction! That He should keep us healthy and whole and strong, because we care for His suffering children.
This is a promise and guarantee that is thousands of years old. It is as ancient as the Torah. A tremendous and miraculous force of refuah will descend to the world in a few days.
Matan Torah will be here very soon, again. Again, we will stand at the foot of the mountain and hear the Aseres Hadibros. Again, they will daven for us at the time of great segulah as revealed by Moreinu Posek Hador Harav Elyashiv zatzal.
Again, a ruach of purity and healing will come down from Above, bringing wholeness of body and soul.
And we will be there. We will receive the Torah along with all the Jewish people. With unity, with mutual assistance, with love for our suffering brethren. כאיש אחד בלב אחד.
And we will be zocheh, like then, to full health. Amen!