Mrs. Yaffa Wolpo, who passed away a few weeks ago, had an amazing miracle with the Rebbe. Her family opened to a series of answers in the Igros Kodesh which gave her the strength to handle her challenges.
Mrs. Yaffa Wolpo recently passed away, and is survived by her sons, R’ Sholom Dovber and R’ Menachem, and daughter, Rebbetzin Sima Ashkenazi.
Mrs. Yaffa (Sheindel Mushka) Wolpo was born on 2 Elul 5684/1924. Her father was R’ Ezriel Zelig Slonim, an official representative of our Rebbeim and a distinguished Chabad Chassid, and her mother was Chaya Feigel.
When she was born, her father was in the United States on a mission for the Rebbe Rayatz. He returned home when she was a year and a half. They say that when he arrived home at the Old City in Yerushalayim, a group of children were playing outside and his wife said, “Let’s see if you can figure out which one is your daughter.” Without a pause, he went right over to his daughter and hugged her happily.
She married R’ Yitzchok Zev Wolpo in Nissan 5705/1945 in Yerushalayim and settled there.
R’ Yitzchok was a big Torah scholar and over the years he adopted a Chabad way of life and sent his children to Chabad schools. He and his wife often traveled to the Rebbe. They say that one time, at kos shel bracha, the Rebbe gave R’ Yitzchok a bottle of mashke as well as a kos shel bracha especially for his wife. R’ Yitzchok was very excited by this special kiruv.
DANGEROUS GROWTH
The following miracle occurred thirteen years ago, in the winter of 5763. It started with a peculiar weakness in Mrs. Wolpo’s left leg. Then she lacked sensation in the leg and found it hard to walk. She began using a cane. Later on, this wasn’t enough and she had to use a walker. Her husband and children had her see the best doctors.
At first they decided to try alternative treatment, but the doctors were unable to diagnose the source of the problem. As time passed and the situation did not improve, they realized it was a more serious problem than they had thought at first. They finally went to a conventional doctor who after many tests determined that there was a serious problem with her spine.
Half a year went by and things got worse. R’ Menachem invited his parents for Shabbos Shuva to his home in Netanya, where he is a shliach. As they got ready to leave Yerushalayim, Mrs. Wolpo fell and broke her right foot. She had to use a wheelchair since there was no sensation in her left leg and her right leg was in a cast.
Before Sukkos they went to a top doctor at Hadassah. He wanted to know how the previous test was done. He was upset by what he heard and said, “They did not do that test properly.” The test was repeated and the doctor sadly told the family the bitter truth, “There is a tumor wrapped around the spine. It is a very rare form of tumor and the chances of a cure are minuscule.”
Says Rebbetzin Sima Ashkenazi:
“We were devastated. The doctors did not know whether it was malignant or benign, the latter having a higher chance of being surgically removed. But an operation near the spine is extremely dangerous for the function of all the rest of the limbs. We spoke with R’ Elimelech Firer so he could help us find the right surgeon. R’ Firer explained that in this rare case, although the surgery could be done in Eretz Yisroel, it was better to go to Brussels where the best doctor for this kind of operation is located. He is a world renowned professor and he treated a number of famous government figures from around the world including the king of Morocco.
“When we discussed traveling abroad, my mother vehemently refused. ‘I am nervous about flying in general and I’m even more afraid when I am in a wheelchair and in pain!’ My father was also afraid of traveling for this reason and he wondered how we would manage in Belgium with a place to stay, the language, etc. It was also hard for him to leave his ongoing shiurim in Gemara and Halacha in Shaarei Chesed, shiurim that start at five in the morning and end late at night.
“This all raised a lot of uncertainty, but in the end we had to make a decision. The doctor who had conducted the test announced, ‘You must operate immediately; otherwise, the paralysis can spread to the entire body!’”
THE REBBE’S BRACHA
It was evening. R’ Yitzchok was expected home from Maariv in a few minutes and then he had to call Tel HaShomer hospital to give his consent (or lack of consent) to the operation.
Rebbetzin Ashkenazi decided to write to the Rebbe. She asked for a bracha and asked whether to go to Belgium or to stay and do the operation in Eretz Yisroel. The answer in the Igros Kodesh was astonishing. At the beginning of the letter the Rebbe blesses, “At an auspicious time, I will mention your mother’s name at the holy gravesite of the Rebbe my father-in-law for the success of the medical treatment. May it be Hashem’s will that just as you wrote the request, you will relate good news in this.” Then the Rebbe offers guidance as to how to help matters along, “Obviously, the more your mother strengthens her trust in Hashem who is the Healer of all flesh and does wonders, in greater measure and that much sooner comes the success.”
The Rebbe then also refers to a trip:
“You write about a suggestion to travel to … etc. – the solution is in your hand. By that I mean that if you decide with the requisite firmness, to spread traditional Judaism and its matters there – and its ultimate and primary aspects – regarding actual deed, and without paying attention to the concomitant difficulties when you desire to do on behalf of our Torah, the Torah of truth and its mitzvos, then the suggestion is proper and good…” (Igros Kodesh volume 19, page 309).
“From that point on, matters were clear for us,” continued Rebbetzin Ashkenazi. “We had to go to Belgium and spread Judaism there.
“I told my family about this answer and to my surprise, along with those who supported me, there were those who were opposed. They claimed that the Rebbe said if we want to travel then the wellsprings should be spread, but it was not an answer from the Rebbe to travel. I maintained that the Rebbe wants us to travel. We all knew we had to decide quickly. The tumor was large and the danger was increasing; every additional day was critical.
“The doctors at Tel HaShomer were urging us to decide and I did not know what to do. The day we had to make a decision my father insisted that the trip to Belgium would be hard for him. He did not know the language, did not have a place to stay, and worst of all, how would he get our mother around when she was in a wheelchair and suffering?
“It is hard to describe my emotional turmoil when I wrote to the Rebbe again. I put the letter into the same volume and opened to page 416. This time too, the Rebbe’s answer was on target:
“May the trip be in a good and successful time in all details and with the inner point – that thereby the spreading of Judaism will increase in general, and the spreading of the wellsprings in particular. And they should utilize the time spent here as per the expression of Chazal “as needs to be done,” with joy and gladness of heart. May we swiftly merit the fulfillment of the promise of “calm and tranquility” that we all return with calm and tranquility to our holy land through Moshiach Tzidkeinu very soon. I await good news in all the above …”
“I called my parents and told them the Rebbe’s answer. As soon as they heard there is an explicit answer they agreed to go. But then problems cropped up. My father said, ‘Our passports expired years ago.’ I was beside myself since we had to travel immediately. My brother Sholom Dovber helped out and promised passports within a day, and he took care of it.
“We contacted the Rebbe’s shliach in Brussels, R’ Mendel Shmuel Pinson. He said he would take care of our stay in Brussels, ‘I will take care of everything.’”
The Wolpos left on Wednesday, 26 Cheshvan 5763.
CHASSIDIM – ONE FAMILY
“Like an angel from heaven,” is how the family describes R’ Pinson. “He helped us throughout the ordeal like he was our brother.” R’ Sholom Dovber describes the rabbi’s help in amazement:
“At the airport, there were people waiting for us, sent by R’ Pinson. They took care of everything, including a special vehicle where you could put a wheelchair. We were immediately taken to an apartment where lunch was waiting for us on the table. The next day, R’ Pinson went with us to the hospital and he waited a long time, throughout the intake process, the arranging of a private room, etc. His wife prepared delicious food every day for the entire family. After a tiring day’s work, she would return at six in the evening and immediately start cooking for us and call us to come and get it. We told her not to cook so much and that we had food left over from the day before, but she didn’t want to hear about it and said, ‘If you don’t come and take it, I will bring it myself.’”
On Thursday and Friday many tests were done and the doctors discussed how to proceed. We saw that they were concerned about the results. This made our mother nervous; she wasn’t young – she was approaching eighty.
When she became even more frightened, Rebbetzin Ashkenazi encouraged her by saying that there was an answer from the Rebbe, “Obviously, the more your mother strengthens her trust in Hashem who is the Healer of all flesh and does wonders, in greater measure and that much sooner comes the success.”
Indeed, the entire family was 100% convinced that the Rebbe’s bracha would be fulfilled in its entirety and she would recover. What concerned them was the great suffering that she was undergoing and what awaited her with the surgery and the rehabilitation to follow.
THE WOLPO FAMILY WAKES UP BRUSSELS
In the meantime, Rebbetzin Ashkenazi and her brothers began to think about how to do mivtzaim in a foreign city, as the Rebbe had said to do in the letter. Rebbetzin Ashkenazi:
“I had taken along with me brochures in Hebrew and English and R’ Pinson supplied us with material in French, the primary language spoken in Belgium. Every day I would walk among the hospital departments and ask the nurses whether there were any Israelis or Jews in their ward. At first they looked at me askance. Why was this woman asking about Jews and Israelis? After a while I learned to start off by saying that I am from Eretz Yisroel and my mother is in the hospital here, and then get to my point.
“Some avoided answering but there were some nurses who cooperated and I reached many Israelis and Jews who were hospitalized in that hospital. With the Israelis I had a common language; with the locals I tried to speak in English and if they did not understand, at least they got a brochure. I spoke a lot about Judaism and observing mitzvos and about the Rebbe.
“R’ Pinson arranged several shiurim for us to deliver. I gave a shiur for Israeli working women and for women from the Foreign or Security Offices who lived in Brussels. I told them about my mother’s illness and the Rebbe’s answer and read them the letters from the text. At the end of the shiur some women would come over to me and ask me to write to the Rebbe on their behalf. We opened to precise answers and brachos.
“My brothers were busy too. They gave shiurim, farbrenged a lot and more. One time, my brother Menachem stood at the hospital’s main entrance and looked carefully at everyone who walked in. Many Jews who passed by and saw a religious looking person said hello to him and he spoke to them about mitzvos and gave out brochures on an array of topics. He also urged R’ Pinson’s community to start a yeshiva.
“My brother, Sholom Dovber, gave a shiur to the families of employees of the Israeli embassy, twice for men and twice for women. He also reviewed maamarei Chassidus in R’ Pinson’s shul the two Shabbasos that we were in Brussels, and also gave a shiur in Nigleh for b’nei Torah with the participation of the rav of the city, the gaon and Chassid, R’ Ezriel Chaikin.”
ONE FATEFUL DAY
After lighting Shabbos candles, they received the results of the tests. The tumor looked benign but was dangerous because it was growing and any small damage to the spine could cause irreversible damage to other limbs of the body.
On Shabbos, the professor came for the first time to examine Mrs. Wolpo. He then said that the operation would be moved up from Monday to Sunday. “Monday could be too late!” he stated and then said that although the operation rooms were not open on Sunday, he would open one up and convene a special team. “I will do all I can to save your mother,” he said.
“On Shabbos I was alone in the hospital with my mother and did not know how to tell her the truth about her condition,” continued Rebbetzin Ashkenazi. “In the afternoon I explained her medical condition as they saw it in the tests. She was agitated. Again and again I read her the Rebbe’s answer and she calmed down.”
MORE COMPLICATED THAN WE THOUGHT
On Sunday, at ten in the morning, Mrs. Wolpo entered the operating room. She was amazingly calm thanks to the Rebbe’s blessings.
“The doctors said it would take time for the operation to begin because of tests and preparations that are done at the last minute. They estimated that the operation would start in an hour and I used the time for mivtzaim. Any previous day that I had gone on mivtzaim it had been hard to smile when my heart was heavy because of my mother who was suffering. Now it was doubly as hard.”
While the surgery took place the family waited in the room where their mother had been previously. They were all there, her husband, daughter, and sons. They all said T’hillim with tears for over five hours until the doctor came and announced, “The operation is over. It was a lot more complicated than we anticipated. We will first see tomorrow whether it was successful.”
In the morning, after a lengthy exam, the doctor said that the operation had been a success.
“We spent another ten days in the hospital, ten days of tension and aggravation. My mother suffered greatly and every move she made was terribly painful. In the meantime, physiotherapists began showing up to teach her how to move her legs.
“Before we left the hospital, my father gave the doctor a gift of a silver cup. The doctor was very moved and promised to make kiddush with it on Shabbos. He was a good man with a warm heart and I hope he continues to be successful in his holy work of saving people’s lives.
“My mother had to undergo quite an ordeal with the trip to the airport and then sitting on the plane for several hours. The worries and problems we had to deal with are indescribable, but thank G-d and thanks to the Rebbe’s brachos, we made it.”
Upon arriving in Eretz Yisroel, Mrs. Wolpo went to a rehabilitation center in Tel Aviv where she underwent physiotherapy for two and a half months.
When the head doctor at the rehab place examined the medical documents, Mrs. Wolpo said to him that apparently only one in a thousand of these kinds of operations are successful. The doctor said, “You’re mistaken. It’s maybe one in a hundred thousand. You did the right thing to have the surgery done by the doctor in Belgium.”
On Tuesday of Parshas VaEira 5763, Mrs. Wolpo returned to her home in Yerushalayim. Her husband went back to his shiurim, day and night, and with time, she was able to participate in the simchos of her grandchildren once again.
Over the next thirteen years she had much Chassidishe nachas from all 250 or so descendants of hers. And as the Rebbe wrote, “May we swiftly merit the fulfillment of the promise of ‘calm and tranquility,’ that we all return with calm and tranquility to our holy land …”
R’ Yitzchok passed away a few years ago and since then, she lived with her daughter in Kfar Chabad. She passed away on 10 Teves and is survived by her children and numerous descendants who go in the ways of Torah and Chassidus.