Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Rabbi of Tzfat, said Friday that his father, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, is conscious after surviving a heart attack and a stroke "by a complete miracle."
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu is answering urgent questions by nodding his head, making signs with his hands and writing. The ailing Rabbi even tapped on the monitors next to his bed while his family members sang songs about Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai in honor of Lag BaOmer.
"I told my mother and teacher, the Rabbanit, that her husband was saved twice and reborn," Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu told a reporter for NFC at Meron.
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu is the former Chief Sephardic Rabbi and a venerated authority for Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews alike.