The Promise

When the Be’er Mayim Chaim was Rav of Czernowitz, there was a bochur who wanted to be chazzan, but the heads of the congregation were against it, until Rav Chaim convinced them to allow him. From then on the bochur became an avid chassid of the Be’er Mayim Chaim and attended to his Rebbe’s needs at all times.

After many years, before the Be’er Mayim Chaim moved to Eretz Yisroel, he promised his young chassid and attendant that if he ever needed his help or a salvation of any kind, he should mention his name and picture his face, and the Rebbe would save him.

Many years later this young man slipped in the mikve and fell into the boiling water of the heating pit. In those days some mikvaos were built so that one of the pits was filled with boiling water, which was then mixed with cooler water for bathing. Everyone thought there was no way he could have survived. But when they pulled out his “body,” they found that he was not only alive but looked like a new person.

When they asked how he had survived, he told them of the Be’er Mayim Chaim’s promise before he left for Eretz Yisroel, and said that even though the Be’er Mayim Chaim was no longer alive, his promise lived on. “When I fell into the boiling water, I immediately pictured the tzaddik’s face and form, and the Be’er Mayim Chaim came and anointed my entire body with fragrant oil from Gan Eden, healing me completely.”