Teen opens eyes as rabbi wraps..

hardwrknmom ↓

Tue, Apr 25 2006, 11:51 am

By Aaron Klein
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

AMAZING STORY!

TEL AVIV – A Florida teenager lying in a coma here after being critically injured last week in a suicide bombing opened his eyes for the first time in a week yesterday just as his rabbi donned him with teffillin, or jewish prayer phylacteries.

Daniel Wultz, 16, was one of over 60 people injured in last Monday's attack in which a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded section of Tel Aviv as Israelis celebrated the fifth day of the Passover holiday. The blast ripped through a falafel restaurant just outside the city's old central bus station, killing nine. The same restaurant was hit by a suicide attack this past January, wounding 20 people.

Wultz, a resident of Weston, Fla., was on Passover vacation in Israel along with his family. The teenager was seated with his father at an outside table of the targeted restaurant when the bomb was detonated.

Described as an avid basketball player, Wultz lost his spleen and a kidney in the attack. On Friday, one of his legs was amputated and doctors at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital have reportedly been fighting to save his other leg, which is suffering from severely reduced blood flow.

Wultz' father, Tuly, suffered a fractured leg in the attack and is set to be released from the same hospital tomorrow.

Wultz has been lying in a coma in the intensive care unit since the bombing.

Until yesterday – seven days after the attack – Wultz reportedly showed little sign of reflex or movement. He had not opened his eyes at all.

But then his family's rabbi, Yisroel Spalter of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish outreach movement, put tefillin on the teenager and immediately Wultz opened his eyes, according to the rabbi.

Spalter had flown in from Florida this week to be with the Wultz family. He described the moment yesterday to Shterum.net, a new Chabad news site:

"I started to put the tefillin on his hand and right before our very eyes Daniel opened his eyes and stared at us despite his comatose state. Maybe it was just a reflex, maybe not, but the fact that it happened precisely when the tefillin were placed on his hand shocked us all. Even the doctors were surprised.

"The family members who were present could not hold back their tears and were full of emotions. I cannot describe to you the electricity that flowed through the room then. It was one of the most moving and emotional experiences I ever witnessed."

Spalter today again put tefillin on Wultz, who soon after opened his eyes again and for the first time began showing signs of communication to his doctors, including blinking his eyes in response to questions.

Tefillin are leather objects with black straps containing biblical verses that are worn on the head and on one arm by Jewish men during weekday morning prayers. The verses inside the tefillin are hand-written by a scribe and consist of the four sections of the Torah in which tefillin are commanded.

One of the main commandments for wearing tefillin comes from the biblical verse in Deuteronomy: "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. ... Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a frontlet between your eyes."

Tefillin have been directly connected to war and terrorism, Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Lewin, a Tel Aviv rabbi, explained to WND.

A verse in Deuteronomy states, "Then all the people of the earth shall see that the name of God is proclaimed over you and they will fear you."

The Talmud explains the biblical verse is referring to the donning of tefillin, which contains the name of God.

In response to the verse, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the revered leader of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, promoted a tefillin campaign in Israel and around the world following the 1967 Six Day War, in which the Jewish state was attacked by several Arab countries.

"After the Six Day War the Rebbe [Schneerson] recognized the power of tefillin and its connection to war against Israel and the desire of its enemies to annihilate the Jewish state, and he started an enormous tefillin campaign," said Lewin.

Spalter and Wultz's family have requested people around the world pray for Daniel Wultz. Prayer sessions have been held by Chabad in Florida and by Wultz's high school friends. Hundreds of e-mail alerts have been sent to the Florida Jewish community and to lists worldwide asking recipients to pray for "Haim Meir Naftali, son of Sara and Yekutiel," the Hebrew name of Daniel Wultz.

''It's been tough,'' Amy Thorpe of Florida, Daniel's aunt, told the Miami Herald this week. "We just want everyone to pray for them so that we can see him as he was, shooting basketball hoops with a big smile on his face.''

gryp ↓

Tue, Apr 25 2006, 11:55 am

Thank you hardwrkn for an incredible story!

amother ↓

Tue, Apr 25 2006, 1:32 pm

hardwrknmom wrote:

Daniel Wultz, 16, was one of over 60 people injured in last Monday's attack in which a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded section of Tel Aviv as Israelis celebrated the fifth day of the Passover holiday. The blast ripped through a falafel restaurant

just wondering - Pesach - falafal restaurant? Confused

on matza?

Tefila

Tue, Apr 25 2006, 3:17 pm

WOw what an incredible story and amother I too was wondering I figure one of two things a) Just as we convert our homes to pesach perhaps the falafel restaurant too did or b) it wasn't yom tov for them someone may have got details mixed up Confused

sarahd

Wed, Apr 26 2006, 3:38 am

Tefila wrote:

b) it wasn't yom tov for them someone may have got details mixed up Confused

For whom is chol hamoed not yom tov? Confused

BTW, falafel refers to the chick-pea balls in your pita, not the pita itself, so it could theoretically be served on Pesach (to Sephardim). I believe, though, that the place that was attacked was a shawarma place - maybe they were serving only meat or maybe meat on matza, or maybe the victims were just sitting at a table eating their own food, not the restaurant's.

Last edited by sarahd on Wed, Apr 26 2006, 2:35 pm; edited 1 time in total

binah918

Wed, Apr 26 2006, 11:43 am

Walking around the TA area during Pesach I did notice a number of kosher shwarma restaurants open. I saw they put plates of matzah on everyone's table. I guess shwarma, tons of salads and matzah sell during Pesach, especially for the tourists. So yes, it is possible.

hindyandrafi ↓

Wed, Apr 26 2006, 8:12 pm

Do you really think its appropriate when a child is lying in the hospital fighting for his life.. to question why/if/how he was is in a falafel joint on pesach... ???? I cant believe you would even bring this up.....

Motek ↓

Thu, Apr 27 2006, 7:35 am

binah918 wrote:

thank you! that's good to hear!

as for bringing it up - since the story is being read everywhere and seems to make a chilul Hashem, I think it's great to read binah918's post and I think "v'hiyisem nikiyim" (you should not make people question and wonder and have to judge seemingly sinful actions in a favorable way) is important here too.

↑ gryp

Thu, Apr 27 2006, 7:44 am

hindyandrafi Thumbs Up

↑ hindyandrafi ↓

Thu, Apr 27 2006, 9:55 am

Motek.. under normal circumstances I would agree with the issue of a Chillul Hashem, but to be honest if a kid is lying in critical condition who the heck cares enough wbout why/if/where he was eating..... and especially why would you even post it???? It makes no sence

↑ Motek ↓

Thu, Apr 27 2006, 9:57 am

Do you know what the Torah sources say about chilul Hashem?

Isn't it wonderful that the question generated binah's response to something that perhaps people didn't verbalize but wondered about?

↑ hindyandrafi ↓

Sat, Apr 29 2006, 8:28 pm

Rabbi: Keep praying for teen

Weston boy may not know he fell victim to a suicide blast in Tel Aviv.

By Ken Kaye
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

April 29, 2006

Daniel Wultz never knew what hit him and probably still doesn't, his rabbi said Friday.

After visiting the Weston teen in the intensive care unit of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv this week, Rabbi Yisroel Spalter said neither doctors nor his parents have told Daniel he was the victim of a suicide bomber on April 17.

"He probably doesn't know why he's [in the hospital]," said Spalter of the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue in Weston.

Daniel, 16, and his father, Tuly Wultz, 52, were having lunch outside a busy Tel Aviv restaurant when the bomb went off, killing nine.

The teen, a sophomore at David Posnack Hebrew Day School in Plantation, lost a kidney, his spleen and part of his right leg below the knee.

Although Daniel woke from an eight-day coma on Monday, he still is in critical condition.

He continues to undergo medical procedures and likely won't be strong enough to return to South Florida for another six months, Spalter said.

Spalter flew to Israel on Sunday and was praying at Daniel's bedside on Monday when the boy came out of the coma.

Although unable to speak, Daniel was able to blink s to indicate he wanted the rabbi to complete the prayer.

The rabbi said Daniel's parents wanted South Florida and the rest of the world to know they are grateful for prayers and feel that is the main reason their son survived.

His parents ask that the momentum keep going, he said.

↑ amother ↓

Sat, Apr 29 2006, 9:22 pm

motek, the question of why he was there did not even enter my mind. I'm shocked that you start quoting sources about chilul hashem etc. The Rabbis in my community told everyone to pray for him. Not once did they bring up where he was, and anyway if I did think about it I would have been don lkaf zechus.
Why would you not have been don lkaf zechus? Where is your ahavas yisroel especially now in the time of the omer?

↑ Motek ↓

Sun, Apr 30 2006, 7:18 am

Interesting that you choose to write a post condemning me anonymously. Do you think that if you write anonymously that you can ignore the mitzva of ahavas yisrael?

mom

Sun, Apr 30 2006, 5:23 pm

I think what the amother meant to say was that it is sometimes more important to empathize than criticize. It is an important chasidic idea to judge ourselves with our left eye (critical) and others with our right (kindness and empathy).

↑ Motek ↓

Sun, Apr 30 2006, 5:56 pm

Surely, if I met with the family, my interactions would be quite different than my responses to a post on a website.

Wed, May 03 2006, 6:18 am

mom - u got the right attitude.
its a shame we always get sidetracked from the main point of the original post, in this case, a sick boy who needs a refua shlaima, rather than a debate on kosher l'pesach food.

↑ Motek

Tue, May 09 2006, 2:19 pm

Quote:

The Tel Aviv restaurant, Mayor's Felafel, was the only one serving kosher food that was open for Passover in that section of the city that day ...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miami.....0.htm

↑ amother

Sun, May 14 2006, 8:00 am

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11497270/

rainbow baby ↓

Sun, May 14 2006, 9:01 am

Boruch Daya Hoemes, may his parents and family and friends be comforted at this awful time. He is in my thoughts and daverning.