Miracle of the Spinka Rebbe’s Grandson: The Child Saved by His Grandfather’s Spirit After the Baba Sali’s Funeral

Immediately after the funeral of the holy Baba Sali, five righteous Jews were traveling home together in one car. Among them was an 11-year-old boy — the son of the Rebbe of Spinka, who lived in Bnei Brak.

Suddenly, the driver lost control of the vehicle, resulting in a terrible accident. The car was completely destroyed, and four of the passengers — Rabbi Blass from the Chevra Kadisha burial society, Rabbi Margalit (founder of “Yad Ezra”), Rabbi Weiss (the son of the Spinka Rebbe), and another Torah scholar named Rabbi Berkovitz — were all killed instantly.

The Rebbe’s 11-year-old son was critically injured.

When the paramedic arrived and saw the child’s condition, he did not even want to begin treatment. “It’s hopeless,” he thought. “Everyone here is dead, and this boy looks the same. His body is torn apart. There’s no chance.”

The boy was rushed in critical condition to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. Meanwhile, in Bnei Brak, the family prepared to bury his father — the son of the Spinka Rebbe.

But a difficult halachic question arose: As they knew the boy was hovering between life and death, the family wondered whether to delay the father’s funeral and wait until the boy also passed away, to avoid two funerals one after the other.

When they consulted the Rebbe, he strongly opposed the idea: “Do not wait for the child to die,” he ruled firmly to the mother. “You have eight children — go be with your son in the hospital. You are not sitting shiva now.”

At the funeral, the Rebbe lifted his voice in bitter weeping and cried out: “Master of the Universe! You wrote in Your holy Torah, ‘You shall not slaughter the mother and her offspring on the same day.’ My son has already become a public offering today — will his son also die on the same day? Please, let Your words in the Torah be fulfilled here in this world!”

Then, in a completely miraculous way, the boy began to recover — day by day, he improved, until he was out of danger and eventually discharged from the hospital, fully healed.

When this miracle became known, the family remembered the paramedic who had first found the child and wanted to thank him. After much searching, they discovered that he was a secular Jew from Ashkelon — originally from Morocco, who had never heard of the Spinka dynasty.

When he came to visit the family, they asked him: “You said you didn’t plan to treat the boy — what made you change your mind and fight for his life?”

The man then told them his story: “In the first few seconds, I truly decided there was nothing to be done. But then, suddenly, an elderly Jew appeared before my eyes. He asked me, ‘Why aren’t you helping the boy?’

“I told him, ‘It’s no use — he’s dying.’ “But the old man insisted: ‘At least try. Do what you’ve learned — treat him, help him, try to save him.’

“Something in me suddenly woke up,” said the paramedic. “I started giving him first aid — even though I didn’t believe it would make a difference, and kept him alive until the ambulance arrived.”

At that moment, one of the family members ran to another room and came back with a photo album. As he flipped through the pictures, the paramedic suddenly burst into tears, pointed to one photo, and said: “That’s him — that’s the man who stood beside me and urged me to save the boy!”

The family was stunned. The man in the picture was the holy martyr Rabbi Yitzchak of Spinka, who had been murdered al kiddush Hashem (for the sanctification of God’s Name) during the Holocaust.

The boy, they realized, had been saved through the merit of his grandfather — who had appeared from the World of Truth to the paramedic and given him strength to act.

Story shared courtesy of Rabbi Tzvi Nakar.