Mr. Bennet (a pseudonym), an elderly holocaust survivor who lived in Ramat Gan, Israel, suffered from a heart condition.  His doctor recommended open-heart surgery, but Mr. Bennet feared having such a serious operation at his age.

One morning, his wife told him with great excitement about a dream she had had:  “My mother came to me and asked if I was interested in receiving a blessing from a tzaddik, for your health and the well-being of both of us.

“First, though, she requested that I undertake to observe a few basic laws of Judaism.  When I agreed and committed myself, she took me to the tzaddik to ask for his blessing.  When I appeared before the tzaddik, he, too, made a condition.  He promised that if I would place mezuzot on the doorposts of our home, then, G-d willing, the operation would be a success.”

The Bennets, at the time, were not Torah-observant, so the commitments that Mrs. Bennet made in her dream were significant steps.  As Mrs. Bennet finished telling her husband about the dream, there was an unexpected knock at the door.  It was early morning and they were not accustomed to having visitors at that hour.  A young Chabad Chassid was standing outside.  He asked them if they would like to place mezuzot on the doorposts of their home.

The couple looked at one another in surprise.  Mrs. Bennet had just finished telling her husband about her dream, and here this young man appears, offering them mezuzot for their doorposts.

Their excitement grew, and they turned to the young man with a question:

“How is it that you came to us with this request?  Aren’t there many other people in Ramat Gan that you could have approached?”

The young man explained:  He lived in New York and was visiting family in Israel.  Before making his trip, he had gone to the Lubavitcher Rebbe to request a blessing for the journey.  The Rebbe gave him a packet of mezuzot and instructed him to place them in a home in Israel.  The Rebbe gave no specific instructions as to where, exactly, to put them up.

When the young man arrived in Israel, he decided to carry out the Rebbe’s instructions.  However, he had no idea which home the Rebbe had in mind.  Therefore, he just set out on a walk of the streets of Ramat Gan, hoping that his intuition would guide him to the right place. He felt that if the Rebbe had sent him on this mission, G-d would surely direct him to the home that most needed the mezuzot.

“I don’t even know why I came to your house,” he said.  “Somehow, I was drawn here, and here I am, ready to carry out the Rebbe’s request.”  

Mrs. Bennet, of course, tied his unexpected appearance with the dream she had had the night before.  She asked the young chassid to show her a picture of the Rebbe who had sent him to her home.  He took out his wallet and showed her a picture of the Rebbe.

“Oy!” she exclaimed in astonishment.  “That is the very tzaddik that I saw in my dream last night!”

The meaning of her dream was clear to her.  The young chassid standing on her doorstep was the messenger from above, sent to convey a blessing for her husband’s recovery.  In her dream, she had promised to put up mezuzot on her doors, and here was a young man bringing her mezuzot from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.  Despite the fact that she had never met the young man before, he had somehow found his way to their doorstep the very same morning of her dream.

The Bennets immediately agreed to have the young man place the mezuzot on the doorposts of their home.  Their amazement grew when they discovered that the number of mezuzot the young man carried, five, was exactly enough for each doorway in their home.

The Bennets were left with renewed confidence and faith, knowing that a tzaddik in Brooklyn had them in mind and had given them his blessing.