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On one particular Wednesday night, I hit rock bottom. I had spent a miserable afternoon with my wife, and come home to a dark, empty house. I simply broke down! When I went to shul for mincha, I spotted my rav and his elderly father; a venerable talmid chochom. I went to wish him Shalom Aleichem, and asked him to bless my wife with a refuah. The old man listened, then asked -
“

Did you ever try the Yeshuas Hachaim of R’ Chaim Palagi?” I hadn’t – though I’d already tried every segula I heard of. But I’d never heard about Yeshuas HaChaim. He continued.
“It is baduk umenusah - guaranteed to work.” He took the sefer רפואה וחיים off the shelf and showed me the following:

"ויש שיושעם כפרה מבהמות ומחלקים הבשר לעניים ולת"ת והוא הדבר גדול, ע"ד שאמר הכתוב (תהלים) "ישלח דברו וירפאם וימלט משחיתותם, ויזבחו זבחי תודה". - If someone wants to merit a refuah or yeshuah they should fulfill "ויזבחו זבחי תודה, ולשלוח הבשר לעניים ולת"ח".

The rav’s father looked at me, and said, “If R’ Chaim Palagi writes that slaughtering animals for the poor is a ‘big thing’, and whoever does so will merit a refuah, then there is no room for doubt!” He told me to look up the Tosefta in Eiruchin, where the idea is also mentioned.

The Tosefta was very interesting. It brings the idea of weighing the patient and donating that amount in gold, or some else of value. The Talmud tells the story of a man whose daughter became seriously ill. He weighed his daughter and went to Jerusalem to distribute money in the amount she weighed, to the poor. His daughter recovered completely.

I decided to try the segula. I had nothing to lose! I called my brother in Yerushalayim, who connected me to Mesamche Lev. I told them my wife’s weight, and said I wanted to sponsor that many pounds of meat. I paid by credit card. Monday morning, my phone rang. It was my daughter, calling from the hospital.

“Tatty!” she yelled. “Mommy is talking!”I jumped into my car, eager to witness the miracle with my own eyes. I met the puzzled doctor in the corridor, and he raised his hands in a helpless gesture of confusion. But I was not confused, only grateful.

When I returned to the Mesamche Lev office the next week, to express my gratitude, I was greeted like an old friend.
“We distributed your meat on Friday,” the secretary said. “You have no idea what a tremendous zechus you have. A talmid chochom from Yerushalayim just called to thank us. He almost never has meat for Shabbos, and this week, he hosted his late sister’s children; orphans. They tasted meat for the first time in their lives! He was so excited; he had to call and thank us.”

I had come in to the office to uplift, and I left uplifted myself. I had witnessed; no – I had lived through – an absolute miracle. My wife is living testimony to the Yeshuas Hachaim.

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