The Letters of the Decree

It is told that one Rosh Hashanah, while Rav Yochonon was in Yerushalayim, a young married man collapsed in his home and no one could revive him. His family hurried to the Rebbe and begged him to arouse mercy from Heaven. The Rebbe told them to put a few drops of wine into the man’s mouth.

They did so, and the moment the wine touched his lips, he opened his eyes, to the amazement of everyone present. By the next day he had fully recovered, and he came to the beis medrash to daven.

Afterward the Rebbe was overheard saying that he had simply rearranged the letters of the man’s decree. Negef, which means “struck down,” had become gefen, the vine, and so the wine was the means of his rescue.