Rav Mordechai Eliyahu's amazing rescue

Achas L'Maala pointed out this story being told of Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, zt"l from when he first became a dayan in the rabbinical court of Beer Sheva:

When Rabbi Eliyahu first became a dayan in Be’er Sheva, in 1957, his was the only rabbinical court in the entire south, between Eilat and Be’er Sheva. On his first day on the job, he saw a woman standing outside, praying from a small Book of Psalms. She remained outside all day. The next day, the rabbi saw the same thing, and the next day again, and so on. Finally, he asked the court secretary to ask her to come in. He asked her why she stood outside and prayed all day, and she related in all innocence: ‘I came on Aliyah [immigration to Israel] from Morocco by myself, and they sent me to Be’er Sheva. I asked where the closest rabbinical court was, I was told it was here, and so here I am.’

He asked her, “What are you praying for?” and the woman said, “My husband in Morocco was a taxi driver, and a week after we were married, at the end of the Sheva Brachot [the seven days of wedding festivities], he crashed - and his body was never found... After a while, I went to the rabbis to be declared a widow so that I could remarry, but they said that without a body, they could not be certain that he was dead – and so I remained a ‘chained woman’ [aguna, unable to marry]. But when I came to Israel, I had faith that what the rabbinical courts in Morocco could not accomplish [in permitting me to remarry], the courts in Israel would be able to do.”

Rabbi Eliyahu asked, “So why did you remain outside the court? Why didn’t you come in to the dayanim?”

The woman said, “Who are you? I pray to G-d, not to you!”

Rabbi Eliyahu immediately took up her case. He took all her papers and went to the Baba Sali, who told him of his brother, the Baba Haki, a leading rabbi in the Israeli city of Ramle who was familiar with all those engaged in Jewish burials in Morocco. Rabbi Eliyahu traveled to Ramle, where the Baba Haki told him, “There were only two Jewish kavranim [people engaged in burials] in Morocco, and both have since come to Israel. One lives in Dimona and one lives in Kiryat Ata [near Haifa].”

Rabbi Eliyahu said, “I live in the south, so I might as well try Dimona.” He went to the exact address supplied to him by the Baba Haki – only to find that the man’s family was sitting shiva for him; he had died just a few days earlier.

Quite disappointed, Rabbi Eliyahu went in anyway, shared some words of Torah and solace with the mourning family and friends, and explained why he was there. Immediately, a man jumped up and said, “I am the other kavran, and I know that story! I was the one who buried the taxi driver!”

Rabbi Eliyahu asked him to accompany come him to other rabbis, who questioned him and determined that his testimony was acceptable. Rabbi Eliyahu convened the rabbinical court, and the woman was declared “unchained” and permitted to remarry.

“This is the power of prayer,” Rabbi Eliyahu later said, “both hers and mine.”

Yechezkel asks some good questions about the story, and I have another one - how is it that the beis din in Morrocco never was able to confirm his death? Did they not have the ability to ask the only 2 kavranim at the time, and Rav Eliyahu was able to ask many years later?

Rav Eliyahu was a great man.. one of the greatest of our generation they say. I had the opportunity of meeting him once, in his sukka by his house, and saw him numerous times in public appearances. He was great, but he was especially refined. He was kind and greeted everyone warmly and equally.

Perhaps that is why he succeeded in helping the woman when others could not. While not knowing why the beis din in Morrocco did not succeed, perhaps his success in resolving her situation was because of his approach - he treated her, and her situation, along with the way he treated everybody else with whom he came into contact, as if she was the most important person at that time.

That level of empathy, the feeling of urgency to help someone in distress, that sympathy to the plight of someone in need, that, perhaps, gave Rav Eliyahu the strength to succeed and become so great. That gave him the siyata d'shmaya.

Along with the power of prayer, as Rav Eliyahu himself said.