לגוזר ים סוף לגזרים

There was a Rav who would regularly travel to Belz to visit the First Belzer Rav, the Sar Shalom zt”l. Later, he moved to Russia, and the political situation made it nearly impossible for him to cross borders and visit Belz.

After thirty years, he finally returned to Belz. By then, the First Belzer Rav was no longer alive, so he came to the holy Mittler Rav zt”l. Around that time, the siddur “Tefillah l’Moshe” was published (from the holy Rema’k zt”l, together with the commentary Midrash B’Chidush on the Haggadah). The Mittler Rav presented the siddur to this Rav as a gift.

As the Rav opened the siddur, he saw that the Midrash B’Chidush explains that during Kriyas Yam Suf, the sea split into twelve sections, corresponding to the twelve shevatim. The Midrash adds that this is a wondrous phenomenon, and that even today one can still see the twelve divisions at the Yam Suf. As the Gemara states (ברכות נד:א) when one sees the place where the sea split, he must praise Hashem.

The Rav was intrigued by this statement and asked the Mittler Rav for an explanation. The Mittler Rav replied: “When a Yid comes to the place where the great miracle of Yam Suf occurred and recites with deep feeling the bracha ‘Baruch… she’asah nissim la’avoseinu’, he can merit to see the divisions of the sea—even today.”

Years later, when the Rav, zichrono livracha R’ Aharon, visited the Kosel HaMa’aravi, he related this story and added: “And one can truly see it!”

Someone audaciously asked him, “The Rebbe was never there?”

The Rav z”l responded with another story that he had heard from the Mittler Rav zt”l. A Yid once came from Eretz Yisroel to visit the Mittler Rav. The Mittler Rav asked him, “How many stones are there in the Kosel wall?” The man did not know. When he returned to Eretz Yisroel, he counted the stones, and on his next visit to Belz, he reported the number to the Mittler Rav.

The Mittler Rav replied that the count was incorrect, because there is one stone from which tefillos ascend directly to Shamayim, and he was not worthy to see it. The Mittler Rav then concluded, “How do I know about the Kosel HaMa’aravi? When my father, the First Belzer Rav zt”l, was there, he took me along…”

The Rav z”l concluded: “It is known that the First Belzer Rav and the Mittler Rav were never physically in Eretz Yisroel—yet he said that he had seen the Kosel.”