Five Minutes in Heaven: A Miracle Story

As a child, Shalom Dov Ber suffered from a heart muscle condition.

In fifth grade, during a seemingly ordinary Passover break morning, he woke up feeling unwell. "Just minutes later, I lost consciousness for a few seconds," he recounted in an interview with Ynet. His father took him to the clinic where they diagnosed dehydration and sent him home. His mother made him chicken broth, but after eating, he fainted again.

"When we returned to the clinic, they said my organs were shutting down. My pulse dropped to 22, and they immediately put me in an ambulance."

As they exited Arad, the paramedics were shocked. The heart monitor showed a flatline for five continuous minutes, and they began administering electric shocks. "My mother says I wasn't responding, and a paramedic came to the back seat to tell her that they'd done everything possible but couldn't revive me."

The Paramedic's Shock: "You Were Just in Heaven"

During those five minutes, Yonah experienced a clinical death, which he recounts as an extraordinary event: "I recall encountering a beautiful world I had never seen. A garden full of flowers of every color and type, illuminated by a bright white light from above, and I walked there confidently.

"There were a few steps down, and beside them stood a rabbi figure—taller than me. I recognized him as the Lubavitcher Rebbe," said Yonah, who comes from a Chabad family. "I saw his face shining before me, and he placed a hand on my shoulder and said, 'Shalom Dov, everything will be okay.' I felt the warmth of his hand, it calmed me. I was there and then suddenly awoke to the ceiling of the ambulance. I had returned to life."

Suddenly, he was heard crying out.

"Shalom Dov Ber woke suddenly, shouting: 'Mom, are you here? Where's my kippah?' At that moment, the paramedic was in shock, saying, 'Just moments ago, you were in heaven. How did you come back so fast?'"

When asked how his family views this experience, Shalom Dov Ber replied that everything revolves around faith. "We are believers, and that's how we approach it today at home."