A short memory of HaRav Eliahu on his yahztzeit today. He lived a few buildings away from us in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem. I had the merit of meeting with him on both private matters and on issues affecting national events in Israel. In addition to being Israel’s Chief Rabbi and a Giant of Torah, all kinds of miracles are attributed to his exalted spiritual attachment to the most upper Heavenly worlds. On one occasion, my brother-in-law, Rabbi Menachem Perl, head of the Tzomet Institute, was informed that his wife was pregnant with twins. An ultrasound revealed that an intestinal blockage was threatening the life of one of them. The doctors advised the husband and wife to have the injured fetus removed from the womb so as not to endanger the life of its brother. The distraught couple went to HaRav Mordechai Eliahu and informed him about the dilemma. He told them that everything would be all right and that he would be available to advise them throughout the months of pregnancy. A subsequent examination revealed that if the wife carried the injured baby to delivery it would endanger both babies and that if both babies came out alive the blemished twin would require immediate surgery to save its life. HaRav Eliahu told them to continue and not to worry. In preparation for the birth, my brother-in-law took a private surgeon to supervise the proceedings. A team of five doctors were on hand to conduct an immedate follow-up operation on the newborn with the intestinal stoppage. An hour after the delivery, one of the surgeons appeared in the waiting room and approached the anxious father. “What Rabbi did you speak with?” he asked. “HaRav Mordechai Eliahu,” the father answered, surprised by the question. The surgeon made a frustrated motion with his hand. “Incredible,” he said. “I can’t tell you how many times that Rabbi has turned everything upside down for us. Everybody is fine. We did an ultrasound on both babies and they are both as normal as can be. We did an ultrasound on your wife to see if the problem we saw was from her. Nothing. Perfectly clean. Tell me, will you? How does this Rabbi do these things?” Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu Tzvi Fishman Rochel Sylvetsky tells a different story with a similar outcome: When I was head of Emunah Israel, one of my responsibilities was to try to place religious Zionist women candidates on municipal and regional election slates. Rumors reacched my ears that Rav Eliyahu was against this move. Since I knew the Rav because I would come to him with halakhic questions cncerning Emunah's daycare centers where most of the workers were Sephardic (and I also came on Chol Hamoed Sukkot to help his wife serve their many guests and invited him to speak to hundreds of Emunah women all over the country, including a set of lectures on women's mitzvot beamed to women's synagogues before the days of zoom) I went straight to his home to find out his opinion - and it turned out there was no truth to the rumor. Emunah made sure that the truth appeared in the religious media the following day. The next step was Haifa. In Haifa, the NRP (religious Zionists) and the haredi parties traditionally ran on a joint municipal list, even so barely scraping one seat on the city council of the most secular city in the country. I wanted to run Emunah member Yaffa Peretz (now z"l) in second place on that list. She was ass't CEO of Rambam Hospital, known to and beloved by religious and secular alike because she helped everyone (she was also head of Emunah's finance committee). The NRP representative was furious at the idea, convinced that it would prevent the religious joint party from getting even the one seat they normally had, and called for a meeting at Rav Eliyahu's house, where I told Rav Eliyahu how Yaffa, who never married, dedicated her life to caring for her elderly parents with respect and love. He decided that she should run and predicted that the joint religious list would profit from the move. I cannot say that the others on the list were happy about the decision - but on election day, for the first time, the religious list won two seats! And a wall in my home is graced by a letter from the Rav.
