There was once a Yid who had a very painful ulcer. He went from doctor to doctor and nobody was able to heal him. Since he lived near the town of Sanz, where the holy Divrei Chaim lived, a friend suggested he go to the tzaddik for a brocha. This fellow wasn’t a follower of the Divrei Chaim, but he believed in tzaddikim, and he agreed to go. When he got there, he explained the problem to the Rebbe, and asked for his advice. The Divrei Chaim recommended that he go to the local grocery store and buy a bottle of vinegar. He should drink some of it and he’ll feel better. Now of course vinegar is never good to drink – but certainly not if you have an ulcer!! But the Yid listened. He bought and drank the vinegar as the Rebbe advised, and lo and behold, he had a complete recovery!
A few years later this Yid has a friend who developed an ulcer, and he also went from doctor to doctor to try to heal it, but to no avail. So he told his friend he knows the cure! Just drink some vinegar, and you’ll certainly be healed like I was a few years ago! He followed the advice, and the poor fellow almost passed out from the pain of the vinegar on his ulcer. Now he became much worse off than he was before, and they rushed to the Divrei Chaim and begged him to help. He told the Divrei Chaim that he is suffering from an ulcer and that he drank vinegar and it made it much worse. The Divrei Chaim responds: “Are you crazy? You had an ulcer and you drank vinegar?! That’s the worst thing you can do!”
“So please, Rebbe, tell me what to do!” The Divrei Chaim responds “Go to the grocery, and buy a bottle of vinegar, and drink from it.” Incredibly enough, the fellow followed this advice, and quickly recovered.
What’s the moral of this story? It’s not the vinegar that heals: it’s the merit of emunas chachamim. When we believe in our tzaddikim, Hashem sends us salvation. And if the tzaddik asks us to do something unusual – it’s because he is pushing us to strengthen our emunas chachamim, so we’ll merit the salvation we need.
In a more general sense as well, sometimes it looks like the efforts we put into something is the reason we see great results, but the truth is those efforts are just as “funny” as drinking a bottle of vinegar to cure an ulcer. It isn’t the efforts that bring the result – it’s the Will of Hashem and the merits we earn through our Torah and mitzvos.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 8.