ובחרשת עץ לעשות בכל מלאכת מחשבת… (ויקהל לו:לג)

And they used a wooden plow to intricately craft…(the Mishkan)

R’ Yakov Shimshon Leib Binenfeld retold this story about his father’s grandfather, R’ Meir Hersh HaKohen Katz a’’h, who was a devout Yid and skilled carpenter. When the Sar Shalom of Belz zy”a built the Aron Kodesh for the great Belz Shul, R’ Meir Hersh was hired to design and sculpt intricate flowers and décor on the doors of the Aron Kodesh. While doing his work and chiseling the wood, a tragedy occurred. The chisel cut off the fingertip of R’ Meir Hersh’s finger.  R’ Meir Hersh ran to the Sar Shalom and showed what happened.  The Sar Shalom took the cut-off fingertip, put it back on R’ Meir Hersh’s finger, wrapped it around with his red scarf, and told him to go home.

When R’ Meir Hersh came home, he removed the scarf to check on his finger’s condition, and lo and behold, his finger was whole, as if nothing ever fell off.

This miraculous incident, plus many more, occurred while building the great Belz Shul.

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