אך את זה תאכלו מכל שרף העוף וגו’ (שמיני יא:כא)

But you will eat this from all the chicken resin…

A gravely sick Yid accompanied by family members came to Maran Reb Yehoshua of Belz zt’’l for a brachah. Doctors had already given up healing his ailment and couldn’t find a cure.  Reb Yehoshua looked at the patient and advised them to travel to a renowned doctor in Vienna. Reb Yehoshua also told the patient’s family that whatever the patient requests during their journey, they must comply with his wishes.

The family immediately took leave and traveled by train to Vienna. They stopped in a hotel where the sick patient rested on a bed overlooking a window. Suddenly, the patient saw a beautiful bird with colored feathers, something he had never seen before.  He asked his family members to capture the bird.  They wondered why he would want this bird but then remembered Reb Yehoshua’s command to obey all the patient’s wishes.

It wasn’t easy to capture the bird, but they finally succeeded, slaughtered it, and prepared a meal for the patient, per his request.

From there, they continued on their journey.  They arrived to the renowned doctor in Vienna, who examined the patient comprehensively.  “Is there any hope for him to heal?” the worried family members asked? “Yes, there is,” replied the doctor. “But I doubt you’ll be able to get this special medication, or better said, ‘capture’ this medication.”

“What do you mean,” asked the patient’s family members.

“There’s a special bird whose feathers are beautifully colored, and this specific bird can only be found in a desert, far from where people live. If the patient can eat from this bird’s meat, then he can experience a complete recovery,” explained the doctor.

The family members were shocked. They recounted Reb Yehoshua of Belz’s advice to heed the patient’s wishes and shared their thoughts with the doctor. “We think the patient has healed since he ate this medicine before coming to this appointment.” And they shared the exact details about the bird’s appearance with the doctor.

The family members were ecstatic and thankful to Hashem for sending them this special bird to heal, exactly how Reb Yehoshua had predicted.

Filed under Parshas Shemini | The Mittler Rav