ובחרת בחיים למען תחי’ אתה וזרעך (נצבים ל:יט)

A distraught Yid once came rushing into the home of Maran Reb Aharon of Belz zt’’l in Tel Aviv on a Friday, crying out to the gabbai, Reb Yitzchak Landau z’tl, that he must see the Rebbe immediately.

Reb Yitzchak tried to calm him, explaining that the Rebbe does not receive visitors on Fridays and that he should return on Sunday.

But the Yid wept bitterly. “I cannot wait! I am a grandson of the holy Barditchever zt’’l, my name too is Levi Yitzchak—and if I do not see the Rebbe today, I fear I will take my life!”

Realizing this was a matter of pikuach nefesh, Reb Yitzchak hurried into Maran’s room, stumbling over his words: “The Barditchover’s grandson wants to come in—if not…”

Maran immediately grasped the urgency and called the Yid inside. The moment he entered, he cried out: “This is him, this is him!”—for he had spent the entire day running through Tel Aviv searching for the Belzer Rebbe, and now that he had found him, he burst out in desperation.

The broken Yid confessed that throughout his life, he had committed many serious aveiros. He was crushed with guilt, so much so that he wanted to end his life.

With deep compassion, Maran calmed him: “Do not despair. You can still do teshuva! You did nothing, you did nothing!”

Those words pierced his heart. The Yid left Maran’s house transformed, with a new sense of hope and purpose. He undertook teshuva, began learning Torah diligently in the Beis Medrash, and kept mitzvos with great devotion—becoming a true baal teshuva.