""Hear Israel!" • A moving miracle: Itzik Saidian asked to be placed on tefillin

January 6, 2022   

An emotional moment occurred this morning (Thursday) at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. Chabad emissary Rabbi Menachem Kutner, from the Chabad Youth Headquarters for Victims of Terror, and Rabbi Moshe Grunberg, visited Itzik Saidian, an IDF veteran who was critically injured when he set himself on fire in the offices of the Ministry of Defense's Rehabilitation Division in Petah Tikva - and to everyone's surprise, he asked to put on tefillin. Rabbi Kutner placed tefillin on his head, with the necessary caution, and with great excitement they recited together, word for word, "Shema Yisrael"! Itzik cried out in excitement and said to Rabbi Kutner: "You are my son-in-law"! Rabbi Kutner: "I have been working for many years with IDF veterans and their families - and this moment that occurred this morning was one of the most emotional of them all. The entire story of Itzik's rescue is a visible miracle, and what happened this morning is entirely a visible miracle!" [Gallery]

Photo: Chabad Youth

''IDF Distinguished' is a nickname that the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l suggested as an alternative to the name 'IDF Disabled', which was used to refer to those wounded in wars waged by the state, in order to emphasize the good deed that caused the injury rather than the negative outcome. It was in 1976 when a group of IDF disabled people came to visit the Rebbe, who were on their way back from the 'Paralympics' in Toronto, and stopped on their way in New York - and asked to meet with the Rebbe. The disabled people arrived at the Rebbe's beit midrash at the Chabad World Center-770 in ten large vehicles, which carried them in wheelchairs. In a conversation with them, the Rebbe said: "I am not comfortable with the name given to someone who is disabled because it shows something of inferiority and decline, but rather it should emphasize that he is something special and distinguished, and therefore I would suggest, as is Jewish custom even in matters that are apparently not his, that the name be changed and you will be called distinguished in Israel.".