By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
Frantic with worry, Rabbi Yekusiel and Rochel Farkash made their way from one rabbi to another, requesting blessings for their daughter, Chana. It was 1976, and she had recently been diagnosed with a malignant form of cancer.
At the same time, the Farkashes pursued the most advanced therapies available. Their search brought them to New York, and while they were there to see specialists, they also made an appointment for a private audience with the Lubavitch Rebbe in Brooklyn. Rabbi Farkash expected the visit to be much like the others he had already had with Chassidic leaders in Israel. Only on those visits, his daughter had not been with him.
The Rebbe stood up when the family entered his study and asked them to sit. The rabbi got straight to the point. “Rebbe, I heard that many miracles come from this room. Please give my daughter a blessing that she should be cured!”
“Only G-d does miracles,” the Rebbe replied. “And I go to the grave of my father-in-law [the sixth Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn] and beseech him to intercede before G-d on behalf of the requests I receive.”
“Please go to your father-in-law’s grave to pray on my daughter’s behalf,” Rabbi Farkash said.
At that point, the Rebbe subtly signaled that the audience was over, following them with his eyes as they rose and moved toward the door. Suddenly, however, he stopped them. What route were they planning to take on their way back to Israel? he asked.
Rabbi Farkash said they were going via London.
“I think you should change the ticket for a direct flight from New York to Israel,” the Rebbe said. “The humidity in London will not be good for your daughter.”
The family assented to this suggestion and left the Rebbe’s study. “With those words, my life was changed,” the rabbi recalled. “We were there for less than two minutes, and yet I felt that the Rebbe cared boundlessly for our daughter.”
Tragically, Chana passed away a few months later. “There is no greater anguish,” Rabbi Farkash said. “Yet through my daughter, the Rebbe left his mark on my life forever.”
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