When Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky Knocked on My Door

Sometimes a miracle arrives quietly. Sometimes it arrives at your locked front door.

In his book Minchat Natan, Rabbi Natan Einfeld recounts the extraordinary story of the day Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky zt"l personally came to visit him and how the blessing of the gadol hador was fulfilled at the exact moment it was spoken.

A Pain That Began in Hallel

“On Simchat Torah 5758,” Rabbi Natan begins, “in the middle of reciting Hallel, exactly as I said ‘Yasor yisrani Kah,’ I suddenly felt pain in my left leg.”

At first, he assumed it would pass. It did not.

The pain spread from the sole of his foot to his ankle, then to his calves and knees, until his entire leg was one mass of agony.

He quietly asked a friend to find him a wheelchair so he could return home. His friend hesitated, saying it did not seem respectful to be wheeled through the streets on such a joyous day.

“I told him it was not about honor. I simply could not stand.”

With great difficulty, supported on both sides, he made it home and went straight to bed. He could not join the holiday meal. He washed his hands in bed, struggled to eat a minimal measure, and even prayed Mincha while lying down.

“The pain was immense.”

A Frightening Possibility

After the holiday, doctors were baffled. Pain injections did nothing.

Hospital tests suggested it might be a tumor in the leg. Rabbi Natan immediately sent a messenger to Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, asking for prayer.

A few days later, a specialist professor dismissed the tumor diagnosis. The source, he said, was likely the spine. Still, the outlook was discouraging.

“With proper treatment, the pain should subside in about six weeks,” the professor said. “You will need physical therapy for a year.”

Rabbi Natan cried out, “I will suffer that long?”

“There is no other way,” the professor replied.

Bring Merits and Be Released

The pain intensified. Rabbi Natan remembered the Gemara in Shabbat 32a:

“A person should always ask for mercy before he falls ill, for if he falls ill they say to him: Bring merits and be released.”

“If only I had known,” he thought. “Another Yom Kippur, another Hoshana Rabbah.”

Yet he clung to the prayer: “Answer us, the One who answers in a time of trouble.”

The Rabbi Is Downstairs

On Thursday morning, after praying Shacharit with a broken heart, his wife left to shop for Shabbat and locked the door behind her.

Then the doorbell rang.

He could not stand, so he called out, “Who is there? The door is locked.”

Rabbi Epstein, close aide to Rabbi Kanievsky, responded:

“The rabbi is downstairs in the car and wants to come up to visit.”

He searched desperately for the house key, hopping on one foot, but could not find it.

Rabbi Epstein went back downstairs and said the door was locked.

“How do you know?” Rabbi Kanievsky asked.

“I spoke to him through the door.”

“In that case,” the rabbi replied, “I, too, will speak to him through the door.”

A Complete Recovery

Rabbi Kanievsky climbed the stairs, saying, “One who visits the sick takes on his illness.”

From behind the locked door, Rabbi Natan heard the rabbi’s voice:

“Reb Natan, a complete recovery. A complete recovery. Hashem will send you a speedy recovery.”

Again: “A speedy recovery.”

The words etched themselves into his heart.

As the rabbi descended, Rabbi Natan cried out, “Rebbe, I am in terrible pain.”

“A speedy recovery,” came the reply.

Gone in a Moment

Rabbi Natan turned back into the room and suddenly realized he had walked.

On both feet.

Without pain.

He tested it. Full weight on the left leg. Nothing. The agony that had caused him to scream at the lightest touch was completely gone.

“In a single second, everything vanished. No injections. No pills.”

He began dancing and reciting verses of thanks: “What can I repay Hashem for all His kindness?” and “Give thanks to Hashem, for He is good; His kindness endures forever.”

The Professor’s Astonishment

On Monday, he returned to the professor’s clinic walking normally.

“Is that you?” the professor exclaimed. “Just days ago you were in a wheelchair.”

“Someone made a house call,” Rabbi Natan replied. “The generation’s tzaddik wished me a speedy recovery, and the pain vanished.”

The professor was speechless.

“If someone had told me, I would not have believed it. But I saw it with my own eyes.”

After examining him, he confirmed that everything was completely normal.

The Gemara Fulfilled

When Rabbi Natan later told Rabbi Kanievsky what had happened, the rabbi opened tractate Avodah Zarah 55a and read:

“Suffering, when it is sent upon a person, is adjured: You shall not go except on such and such a day, and you shall not depart except on such and such a day and at such and such an hour, and by the hand of so and so, and by such and such a potion.”

Rabbi Kanievsky explained:

“It was decreed that your suffering would leave on Thursday at eleven thirty. I arrived a moment before and merited to fulfill the mitzvah of bikur cholim. In the very next moment, the suffering kept its oath and departed.”

He also cited Megillah 15a:

“Do not take the blessing of an ordinary person lightly.”

And as Berachot 42a states, immediately after the Torah scholar’s blessing, the salvation came.

Rabbi Einfeld concludes:

“Praise and thanks to the Healer of all flesh and Worker of wonders, Who dealt wondrously with me in the merit of the tzaddik’s blessing. Until now His mercy has helped us. Blessed is the God of thanksgivings.”