A Rear Disease - R. Eliyahu Maksumov - TorahAnytime.com

There's a famous story about a fellow who was very very sick. His name is Rav Yosef Rivlin. And he went to Rav Zalman from Lubavitch and he told him, "I have a very very unique illness." And the rabbi looked it up and it turns out that this illness is really found in animals and somehow this person got it. And he wasn't sure how to be cured from it. So, the rabbi told him he should go live in Safed. At the time the fellow lived in Europe. So, he packed up his stuff and he went to Safed. And after living in Safed for a year, he got cured. And he thought that it was the air of Safed that saved him. After a year, he came back to the rabbi Rav Zalman and he said to him, "Rabbi, you told me if I live in Safed, I'll be cured. But what was it about Safed that cured me? Is it because of the air of Safed?" He said, "No, it's not it's not because of the air." So, what happened? He says, "You see, this disease that you described to me that you had was very rare and it's found in animals. And the rabbis of Europe ruled that if a person ends up with such a disease or even an animal ends up with such a disease, then they're for sure going to not last. They're not going to survive. And it's only a matter matter of days until they will die. So, the rabbis of Europe ruled very clearly that according to the Rama, for sure a person cannot survive such a disease. However, the rabbis of Safed at the time, the rabbis in the in Eretz Yisrael like ruled like Maran. And Maran ruled that if a person has this disease or an animal has this disease, he could survive it. And in fact, an animal with such a disease is kosher. And because the rabbis ruled like this over there, I sent you there to Safed because I knew that if that's the way the rabbis ruled over there, that means God rules like that over there as well. But you lived in Europe at the time and that's why the doctors were giving up on you because the rabbis where you were living ruled that a person cannot survive such an illness. Once you moved to Safed where the rabbis learn this way, you saved yourself because Hashem follows the rulings of the rabbis. And this is the power that the rabbis have. When you come to a rabbi, you don't understand, you're not just coming to uh to a regular person off the street. You're coming to somebody who has siyata d'Shmaya, who's who's having a certain ruach hakodesh. It's almost as if uh Hashem is giving him the the ability to make a psak. You have to understand the power of the rabbis. The rabbis are giving us rulings based not on just their own opinions and their feelings. They have the power to rule and Hashem goes along with their rulings. And Hashem says that that's how the rabbis rule, that's how I rule. When you follow the words of the rabbis, you're in truth following the words of Hashem. Ase lecha rav, make yourself a rabbi. Because when you follow the rabbi's word, in truth you're following God's word. This is what God says that you have to do. You're following God's direction.