The Baal Shem Tov's Segulah

During a revolt in the days of the ruler Ibrahim Pasha, the governor of Tzfas offered the Avritcher a safe haven, but he refused, saying that wherever all the Jews would be, he would be with them. When the rebels learned that the Avritcher was present, they captured him and some of his followers and marched them off to be killed.

On the way, the younger captives began whispering about a plan to seize their captors' swords and attack. The Avritcher overheard them and ordered them to abandon the idea. Instead he told them to ask the captors for water. He pretended to be thirsty and was given water, and over it he fervently recited the berocha Shehakol niheya bidvaro. Afterwards he explained to the Chassidim that the Baal Shem Tov taught that reciting this berocha in times of distress is a segulah for salvation from danger.

Just then a well-dressed, respectable-looking Arab approached and began to berate the rebels, asking them to release the Rebbe and his followers, for were they not honorable men, as he had heard? To uphold their new reputation, the rebels released the prisoners and sent them home.

Soon after, word went out that all Russian citizens must leave, and the Pasha wished to expel the Jews from Tzfas to Akko and Haifa. The Avritcher told the Chassidim to sit tight and said that the Pasha would leave before they did. And so it was. Within days the Pasha was deposed and murdered, and Tzfas was quiet and peaceful once more.