Advice That Worked

People came to Rav Ben Tzion for blessings and advice as well as for Torah. Once a father came whose son was critically ill. The doctors had proposed a very risky treatment, and the father did not know whether to agree. Rav Ben Tzion told him to take the boy out of the hospital.

This turned out to be far from simple. The hospital would not hand over the medical records, and the staff even called the police, and charges were avoided only because a community leader stepped in. The boy got better without any of that treatment, which could have had dreadful results. More than once Rav Ben Tzion ruled against the doctors' opinion, and events proved him right every time. He had never studied medicine or used X-rays and ultrasound, but the Chovos HaLevavos teaches that one who lives with emunah can see without eyes and hear without ears, for his soul perceives.

His advice on family matters was fresh and unexpected. A father whose son had left yeshiva complained that the boy not only wandered the streets but had even asked for a motorcycle. “Buy him one,” Rav Ben Tzion said. The father was surprised but did as he was told. Seeing his father reach out to him, the young man responded warmly, and in time he went back to yeshiva.