Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
What were they all doing there? Why did thousands of people who did not know each other come from all over Israel to gather together on the lawn outside Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva? Why did they say selichot with such fervor for the recovery of Barel Shmueli, a soldier who was hospitalized there after being critically wounded on the Gaza border?
In the book "Shefa Chaim," the Rebbe of Sanz writes:
"All souls in Israel are considered as one since within every Jew a soul resides that is a part of God from above. As a physical body, each Jew is separate from his fellow, while as a soul, the concept of separation does not exist and all souls in Israel are one unit.
This is an innermost truth of the holy Torah. And since all of Israel are considered one spiritual body, it must be that each person feels the pain of his fellow. And just as everyone understands that when a person hurts his hand, his foot, or any other limb, his entire body is in distress, so too every soul in Israel feels the pains of all the other souls. It's as if so-and-so is my hand and my neighbor is my foot and when either of them is in pain so am I. This matter is among our most fundamental principles."
For the recovery of Barel Achiya Ben Nitza.
