אם בחקותי תלכו ואת מצותי תשמורו, ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם… (בחוקתי כו:ג)

If you follow in My decrees, observe My commandments, and perform them, I will provide your rains in their times.

In Kfar Gideon, a Moshav (settlement) in Emek Yizraiel, lived many Heimishe Yidden, new ‘olim’ (immigrants) who settled there to earn a livelihood through farming.

It was one winter season when they had finished planting their wheat fields, and they were waiting for rain for the wheat to sprout.  But alas, the rain wasn’t falling for a while, and all their labor was in vain, especially since the experts from the Department of Agriculture told them that if the rain didn’t fall within five days, their crops would be a ruin.

Seven moshav farmers hired a taxi to take them to Tel Aviv to seek a blessing from Maran Reb Aharon of Belz zt’’l. They shared their plight with Reb Aharon and the dire warnings they received from the Department of Agriculture. Reb Aharon asked them if there was a Talmud Torah in their Moshav. And they answered that they didn’t have one yet.  They meanwhile send their children to learn in nearby schools.

Maran Reb Aharon gave them his warm blessings for success, and they bid farewell. On their way home by taxi to Kfar Gideon, on the outskirts of Afula (approximately 2.5 miles from their destination), it started pouring torrents of rain – גשמי ברכה – the floods made it hard for the taxi to navigate its way into the Moshav.

Since they witnessed the נפלאות הבורא – the divine wonder that saved their fields, they traveled back to Tel Aviv and rented a large apartment near the Belzer Talmud Torah for the children of Kfar Gideon to dorm and enable them to learn in the Belzer Talmud Torah.

This story was heard from R’ Yuda Mermelstein shlita, founder of the Aleh Organization in Isreal, one of the Kfar Gideon students who learned in the Belzer Talmud Torah.

Filed under Parshas Bechukosai | Reb Aharon of Belz