Dr. Nirken, a well-known pediatrician in Houston, Texas, made this visit without his ‘little black bag.’ He had not arrived at the Chabad House to pay a house call; this time, he was seeking personal assistance.

“I woke up one morning a month and a half ago,” he explained to the shaliach Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff, “with a numb hand. I tried to restore sensation, but I discovered to my horror that I could not move my hand at all. For six weeks, the finest doctors in the field have been treating me, but they have not been able to determine the cause of the paralysis or to suggest any therapy. They also warned me that the paralysis may soon spread.”

Rabbi Lazaroff had but one suggestion for the agitated doctor: “Why don’t you write a letter to the Rebbe?”

Dr. Nirken readily agreed.

Six weeks later, the Rebbe’s secretary, Rabbi Klein, called Rabbi Lazaroff. The Rebbe had three messages for Dr. Nirken:

a) The Rebbe inquired about the doctor’s condition;

b) The Rebbe gave him a blessing for a complete recovery;

c) The Rebbe instructed him to check his tefillin.

Rabbi Klein added that the answer was given the previous night after yechidus, shortly before 1 AM.

Rabbi Lazaroff contacted the doctor immediately and conveyed the Rebbe’s answer. Dr. Nirken could not contain his excitement. “Incredible!” he exclaimed. “Last night at 12:45 a.m. I was suddenly able to move my hand for the first time since it became paralyzed.”

Rabbi Lazaroff asked the doctor if he had tefillin. Dr. Nirken explained that he used a pair which he had inherited from his grandfather. They had been the subject of a unique miracle: Once the doctor’s house had burned down, and everything he owned was destroyed except for the tefillin.

Now, after hearing the Rebbe’s directive, Dr. Nirken gave his tefillin to Rabbi Lazaroff, who flew to New York on the same day to have them checked.

That evening, the scribe called the Rabbi, “The parchment scrolls inside the tefillin are not kosher. In the verse,1 ‘And you shall bind them as a sign on your arm’ the word, yadecha ‘your arm,’ is missing.”

The story continues several years later. Once the renowned opera singer Jan Peerce attended a bar mitzvah in Houston. When asked to speak a few words, he told a moving story of his own illness and recovery. Ten years previously, while in San Francisco, he had fallen critically ill. The doctors had given him no more than a few days to live.

A friend rushed to the shaliach in San Francisco, asking him to write to the Rebbe for a blessing. Almost immediately, the Rebbe gave Mr. Peerce a blessing for a complete recovery.

And to the amazement of the doctors, that is exactly what happened. “In gratitude,” explained Mr. Peerce, “I resolved to put on tefillin every day.

“On his bar mitzvah, ” Mr. Peerce concluded, “a young man begins putting on tefillin. Let us all join him in fulfilling this practice daily.”

The guests at the celebration were visibly moved. Among them was Dr. Nirken, who subsequently rose and told his own story.