R' Elimelech Bidernman related an amazing story of a sick man who needed a kidney transplant. This man was put on a transplant list and went from Israel to live in NY awaiting a match and available kidney. He was accompanied by an Israeli medical consultant who was able to translate and navigate all of the issues for him. He was waiting for over 2 years in NY for a suitable match.

At some point the medical consultant suggested that they try traveling to CA as there would be a better chance there for him to find a match. Before they left the medical consultant spoke with his wife and she told him that as soon as they land in CA he should call home  (this was many years ago before the proliferation of cell phones) because maybe during the 6 hour flight there would be a match. The man agreed that he would indeed call when the landed but said they had been waiting for 2 years why all of a sudden on the trip to CA would there be a match?

They boarded the plane for the cross country flight and landed in CA late at night. The two men proceeded to their hotel room at around 3am in the morning.The man said he wasn't going to try and find a phone to call his wife, but he would wait until the morning. At six in the morning the men heard a banging at their hotel room door. The man opened up and it was the police. They told him that his wife was looking for him frantically and he should call her right away. He called her and she said "why didn't you call when you landed I have been looking for you for the past few hours". She said the hospital called in NY to say that someone died and he was a perfect match for the patient he was accompanying. He immediately called the hospital in NY and they told him that indeed there was a match for two kidneys but the policy is that after three hours if they can't get in touch with the first person on the list then they reach out to the second person and so forth. The hospital told him that 15 minutes ago they gave the second kidney away and there was nothing to be done. The man was despondent, he didn't know what to say, how could he tell this to the patient he was accompanying who had been waiting so long? He refrained from saying anything but as the day went on the patient asked him what was wrong? He could no longer hold back and he told the patient the entire story. The man exploded in joy and happiness when he heard the news. The medical consultant didn't understand the strange reaction. The patient explained to him, don't you see, we were waiting for over 2 years for the kidney and nothing came up. As soon as we go on a plane to CA a kidney comes up and we miss it by a few minutes, G-d obviously didn't want me to have this kidney it isn't for me. Imagine if I would have been in NY, they would have put someone elses kidney into me and who knows what would have been. The medical consultant was overwhelmed by the patient's reaction and his steadfast faith in G-d. The patient called home and told them the great "miracle" that G-d performed for him by saving him from the wrong kidney. Two months later they were called by the hospital in CA and he underwent a successful transplant. The medical consultant was curios about what happened though with the two patients who received the kidneys in NY. He checked with the hospital and they told him that the two kidneys were successfully transplanted into two patients. They told him though, that although the kidneys looked good on the outside there was serious issues which were undetected internally with them, both patients who received the kidneys died within two weeks of the transplant.

The Israeli patient with his steadfast faith, lived many more healthy years and he would make a meal of thanksgiving each and every year on the day he missed the two kidneys in NY.

Shabbat Shalom and a meaningful Tisha Baav to everyone.

Heath