A Prayer for Salvation
Rav Eliyahu published his son's sefer with a tefillah and segulah for anyone who needs a yeshuah.
It is told that Rav Eliyahu's son, Rav Tzvi Hirsch, who had studied in the yeshivah of Rav Akiva Eiger like his father, passed away young, in his father's lifetime. The father eulogized him, and then did what a Torah father can do: he took up his son's writings and brought them to print. Among them were Nachlas Tzvi, covering Yevamos and Kerisos, and Kan Meforeshes, a work on the tractate Kinim.
In the introduction to Kan Meforeshes, Rav Eliyahu wrote something remarkable. A person who is in need of a salvation, he said, should study this sefer, a tractate famous for its connection to a bird's offering, and recite a tefillah he composed for the occasion. The tefillah draws on the merit of a son who left his Torah behind for the generations.
He gave a gentle instruction as well. If the yeshuah does not arrive at once, the person should not give up, but should keep learning and praying, for up to three days.
It is told that people in need of every kind of help took the tefillah and the segulah to heart. Over time it became well known, and it is still recited by those who study Kan Meforeshes. It carries the voice of a father who turned his own grief into light for others.
Source: Rav Eliyahu Gutmacher, introduction to Kan Meforeshes (his son Rav Tzvi Hirsch's sefer on Kinim).
When something painful touches your life, it is natural to ask only what it takes from you. Try one more question this week: is there something good I can build from this, for someone else? It might be learning a sefer in someone's memory, starting a small giving habit, or saying a chapter of Tehillim for a person who is struggling. Choose one small act, begin today, and keep to it for three days. Hashem often answers us through what we do for others.