Rav Mordechai Eliyahu Suffers to Bring Mashiah

Update: My translation, lightly edited, can now be seen on Matzav.com

An anonymous commenter brought an article on Arutz Sheva's Hebrew site to my attention. I will try to translate it correctly.

In a special interview with the weekly "Mayenei Hayeshua" which will be publicized in the upcoming Shabbat (Vayehi), Rabbanit Tzivia Eliyahu, the wife of Maran, the Rishon Letziyon [Rav] Mordechai Eliyahu Shlit"a, and the rabbi's daughter, Meirav, talk about their correspondence with the rabbi during his stay in the hospital and the messages that he passed to her. Among them, he said that his sickness comes as an atonement for Am Yisrael.

In the framework of the many hours in the hospital, the sons and daughters of the Eliyahu family introduced themselves to ill patients and they tell many stories about the rabbi's intervention.

Meirav said, "A woman became pregnant with triplets. The doctors told her that since 2 daughters were in the same placenta, one was taking strength from the other, and therefore, 1 or 2 of the girls will not come out OK. 'They will have a problem with a big defect,' the doctors proclaimed. The pregnant woman cried a lot and felt that she will not be able to raise a child with such a big defect. She went to the rabbi, and the rabbi told her, 'I promise that all the girls will be fine, and if something is not fine, bring me the girls. I only have 1 daughter...' After many months, she gave birth to complete, healthy girls. The doctors couldn't believe it."

The Rabbanit told over the following, "After the rabbi blessed another man who was about to die, I turned to the rabbi and asked, 'There is someone that looks like he has 2½ legs on his way to the next world, while by contrast, you look healthy. Why don't you pray for yourself?!' The rabbi said, 'No, no. I need to cancel the decrees.' The next day, they found the ship with 500 grad missiles.

"When I told him, 'Enough! get out of this situation! You could free yourself!', he signaled 'no' with his hand and whispered, 'thousands could be killed, thousands could be killed'," described the Rabbanit.

"I asked him, 'Maybe all this suffering is because of me, maybe because of the children or the grandchildren or daughters-in-law - one of us did something [wrong]?! Master of the universe!' He said, 'No, no, because of Kelal Yisrael'. I asked him, 'At least you could tell me what this process will bring?' He wrote, 'Mashiah'. [She asked,]'Nu, when?' I wrote [this] with 3 signs of questioning [?], but the rabbi did not answer me. I asked, 'What do we need to do?' The rabbi wrote, 'Teshuva'. I asked, '[Teshuva] in what?' The rabbi answered, 'ואהבת לרעך כמוך' - what is hurtful to you, do not do to your friend. Even during the time of [King] Ahav, they worshiped idols, but there was not baseless hatred there, and there was no war for 40 years. Because there was unity in Am Yisrael, there was no war. So, we should be concerned that everyone should accept this upon themselves. The community has an important job," explained the Rabbanit. "The rabbi will not nullify what he took upon himself. He suffers because of Kelal Yisrael and Kelal Yisrael needs to act for him. He told me explicitly, 'I will not pray, the community should pray.'"