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ASTOUNDING: After His Tefillin Are Repaired, Condition Of Yeshivah Bochur Bitten By Snake Improves


The condition of a yeshivah bochur from Neve Yaakov who was bitten by a poisonous snake on a hike last week and was hospitalized in extremely critical condition has improved.

The bochur regained consciousness for the first time on Tuesday night and even mumbled a few words. The doctors removed his ventilator and he is now breathing on his own. “Mazel Tov, Mazel Tov,” his father, R’ Dovid Fogel, said. “A new son was born to me. Baruch Hashem, Menachem woke up.”

According to a B’Chadrei Chareidim report, a relative checked the bochur’s tefillin and it was found that the word “ye’meichem” in the passuk “l’ma’aan yirbu ye’meichem” was passul. Apparently, after the parshiya was folded, it created a space in the letter “mem” which invalidated the word. The tefillin were immediately sent for repair of course.

The family has asked the public to continue davening for the refuah sheleimah of Raphael Chaim Menachem Mendel Ben Leah b’toch cholei amcha Yisrael.

Menachem was hiking at Nachal Tze’elim in the south with friends last week when he suddenly fainted and lost consciousness. His friends summoned help and he was evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.

However, no one knew he had been bitten by a snake and it was only after a few hours passed that medical staff discovered the bite, which is what caused him to lose consciousness and as a result, suffer from heatstroke, one of the bochur’s friends told Kikar H’Shabbos.

The name Raphael was added to his name according to the instructions of Hagaon Harav Chaim Kanievsky.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)



22 Responses

  1. the ONLY thing “astounding” here , is that a frum web site would call this story ” astounding” !!!
    theres no chidush here according to torah hashkafah.

  2. NaarYisroel,

    Even in tefillin (and mezuzah) there are psulim that are reparable. While it’s not clear from the image nor can a psak be given based on the image, there was likely a fine split or some very fine cracks which severed the letter and was fixable, possibly after asking a child.

    I’m sure the base of the Nun in Nafshchem was extended a tad to the left, as it should preferably stick out from the hold both on the right and left and the spacing between the first and last 2 letters of Yirbu could be improved.

    Here we have beautiful parshios, surely written by a very fine sofer. Let us learn from this:
    1. How much care needs to taken to have parshios checked thoroughly before use, preferably by 2 examiners and paid by the hour. (In this very small sampling I immediately noticed 2 things that should have been fixed at the outset.)
    2. The importance of checking the parshios. (It’s somewhat of a catch 22 as folding/unfolding the parshios may cause cracking on the folds. However, if the klaf is thin and the klaf is not pressed down along the folds then limited pressure is put on the ink and lowers the chance of cracking. If handled by a professional and checked infrequently then many are of the opinion that the slight risk outweighs the gains of never knowing if there are cracks or ink on fine lines, particularly tagin and oktzim, have faded. Consult your Stam professional.

  3. The split mem changes the word to יכויכם which in targum can mean snake bites. Look in vezos habracha

  4. You mean , ASTOUNDING : After thousands of Tefillos on beahlf of Yeshiva Bochur bitten by snake his condition improves dramatically. I am a neighbor of the family and a sofer as well and I was shown the Parshios of the tefillin . I noticed the problem which does not render the tefillin Posul only requires strengtening of the the ink by the area of the fold causing the semi split . The Tefillin were immediately sent to the sofer who had them written , for correction . However as previously mentioned the Tefillin were never rendered Posul and it was clearly the many תפילות and קבלות טובות which brought about the improvement in his condition .

  5. post hoc ergo procter hoc is certainly not one of the midot she’ha’torah nidreshet . ve’ha’maivin yavin

  6. Unless it was rishumo nimar, in which case the halachah of k’sidran may not apply (I am not a baki). But if so, were the parshiyos really posul? Can someone enlighten us?

  7. Yes Tfilin need to be written כסדרן however it is allowed to erase backwards from the end of all parshiut the words from על הארץ till the פסול which is not to far in this case so to can the sheim hashem be removed in one piece by an professional, alternatively the last פרשת והיה אם שמוע can be rewritten and attached

    In many cases Tfilin may be fixed even שלא כסדרן if the letter still has its form but has a small הפסק this has to be done only through a quallified sofer or Rav, In the picture the tifilin do not seem to be really פסול it just needs strengthening the color, however the story is a good lesson in being careful in mitzvat tifilin

  8. כסדרן is not a problem here
    Look at photo and look up שו”ע סימן ל”ב סעיף כ”ז
    Any תינוק can recognise the מ

  9. A few good things, new name tfillois and tfillin check, also good doctor. At the end of the day תמים תהיה עם ה׳ אלוקיך . He did the job. Proof?
    כי אני השם רופאיך. Really astounding.

  10. This story isn’t that astounding. These stories happen all the time, just they usually don’t get much attention.

    Shea Hecht was a cultbuster many years ago, who used to kidnap young men that were gravitating towards foreign cults r”l and he would bring them to a warehouse where he would deprogram them. Once, after a successful mission of his, he decided to check the tefillin of the yid who he had just saved. He saw that the Daled in the word “Echad” was ruined so that it looked like a Reish, spelling the word “Acher”, thus making the possuk spell “Another G-d”!

  11. astounding ?! definition -surprisingly impressive or notable. to a torah jew there is nothing astouding here at all!
    the ONLY thing “astounding” here , is that a frum web site would call this story ” astounding” !!!

  12. Soferstam, without commenting on the other issues, the “solution” you raised is not possible. You cannot erase everything from ימיכם until the end of the parsha, because there is a Sheim in the middle.

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