Reb Dovid Lelover and the Crippled Daughter

This story is about Reb Dovid of Lelov before he became a Rebbe. He was just a shlepper, a poor little beggar sitting in the synagogue in Lublin.

In those days, the mail was not reliable. You had to give your letter to someone personally, and ask the person to bring it to the house you were sending it to. So the story is that a big Rabbi, who as also a strong ‘anti’ [anti -hassidism; a ‘mitnaged’] came into the synagogue. He asked, “Is anybody going to Pieterkoff?”

Pieterkoff was on the way from Lublin to Lelov. So Reb Dovid, the shlepper, went up to the great rabbi and said, “I’m leaving tomorrow for my home in Lelov. If you want, I can take a

The rabbi said, “You’d be doing me a big favor. I am the rabbi of Pieterkoff. My wife doesn’t know that I am still here. She might be worried. So please do me the biggest favor, and take this letter. Thank you.”

Four weeks later, the great rabbi came home. He had ten children. Nebuch, the oldest girl, who was seventeen years old, was paralyzed. When he knocked on the door late at night, this girl opened the door. She was walking and jumping. He said, “This is the greatest miracle in the world!! What happened?”

She said, “I don’t know. But remember when you sent a letter with a little shlpeper? At that time I could only lie in my bed.” (In those days, if a girl was paralyzed, she couldn’t do anything. They didn’t have wheel chairs or crutches, especially if you were poor. So she was lying in bed most of the time.)

“So,” she said, “Late at night someone knocked on the door. It was this little shlepper. But he was really shining. All the kids came to see who it was. (In those little villages, if someone knocks at the door, it is a great event. All the children run to see who it is.) He asked us how we were. One of us told him that there were ten of us. He looked around and counted nine. He said, “Where is the tenth?” So I stuck my head out. I was lying in bed. That was all I could do. He looked at me and he said, “You should all be healthy. Zeit mier alle gesunt.” Then he walked out. But when he said it, I suddenly felt life in my bones. I couldn’t help it. I just go out of my bed and started dancing.”

When a person understands the holiness of words, and only speaks the truth, then everything that person says becomes truth.

letter.”