A Shabbat Story: Small Lentils in the Ear And A Great Miracle in the Town

Little Yosel’e had started saying he couldn’t hear so well, but his parents never imagined what was really going on. Three days after he first mentioned discomfort, his ear began to swell, turn red, and even change shape and no one could figure out why.

At first, the issue wasn’t clear. But after a checkup by the town doctor, the mystery came to light. Deep inside Yosel’e’s ear was a dark object. It turned out that the curious little boy had been playing with lentils and decided to drop them into his ear one by one, just to see what would happen.

The lentils, once exposed to moisture from both his body and the shower, began to swell, ferment, and rot causing a severe infection. What began as playful curiosity quickly turned into a serious medical issue. Yosel’e no longer thought lentils were a joke.

But this was about 150 years ago, and medicine back then, especially in small towns like Yashnitsa, was very limited. The doctors tried what they could but soon told the family there was nothing more they could do. They suggested the father visit one of the “miracle workers,” as gentiles referred to the great rabbis and spiritual leaders, the Admorim and tzaddikim, of that time.

With a heavy heart and nowhere else to turn, the father traveled to Rabbi Yechezkel Shraga Halberstam of Shinova, a deeply respected tzaddik whose yahrzeit (anniversary of passing) is on the 6th of Tevet. He begged the Rebbe to bless his son with healing.

The Rebbe listened and gave a short, almost casual blessing: “With Hashem’s help, everything will be okay.”

Several days later, as the Rebbe was in his study binding willow branches for Hoshanot (the prayers involving willow branches on Sukkot), the man from Yashnitsa happened to be there again. The Rebbe noticed him and asked gently, “So, what are the doctors saying about little Yosel’e?”

The man’s face fell. With tears in his eyes and a weak voice, he replied, “They still don’t know what to do. It seems hopeless.”

The Shinova Rebbe paused and looked at him with compassion. Then he began to share a story.

“When I was a young man, I was with my Rebbe, the holy Rabbi Shalom Rokeach of Belz. One day, a Jew came in suffering from a serious condition, his nose had been bleeding for a long time, and it interfered with his life. Sometimes it even put him in danger.

The Belzer Rebbe listened and sent him to the city of Lemberg, not far from Belz. ‘Go to Dr. Rapoport,’ he told him, ‘and with Hashem’s help, he’ll find a cure.’

The man did as the Rebbe instructed. When he arrived at Dr. Rapoport’s office, he explained that the Rebbe of Belz had sent him. The doctor took one look with his small flashlight, and suddenly, the man sneezed so forcefully that all the pus and infection shot out of his nose splashing all over the surprised doctor.

But it wasn’t the mess that upset the doctor. It was something else. ‘That Rebbe of yours does this to me all the time,’ he said. ‘If I had known this man had that kind of infection, I would never have touched him. No doctor could treat such a case without risking the man’s life.’”

The Shinova Rebbe finished the story and resumed his work.

Two days later, on the night of Simchat Torah, the holiday celebrating the completion of the yearly Torah reading cycle, a non-Jewish postman entered the Rebbe’s study house. He was looking for the Jew from Yashnitsa. When he found him, he handed him a telegram from his wife.

Her message was urgent and filled with awe.

She wrote that just as the doctor approached to examine Yosel’e’s ear again, all the pus burst out on its own. The ear was now completely clean. There was no trace of infection, no more swelling. It was as if nothing had ever happened.

Shocked and moved, the man went to tell the Rebbe about the miracle. But the Rebbe looked at him quietly and said, “It would be better for both of us if you didn’t speak about what happened here.”

And just like that, the Rebbe turned back to his work, as if nothing unusual had happened.

But for one little boy, one grateful father, and one small town everything had changed.