Two years ago — what seems to him like a lifetime — Yonatan Razel’s world turned upside down following the triumph of his first album Sach HaKol in 2007 and the success of his hit song “Vehi She’amda” — which he composed produced and arranged and then performed with Yaakov Shwekey. He was awarded “Singer of the Year” by Ynet and his “Vehi She’amda” and was awarded “Song of the Decade” by the Israeli station Radio Kol Chai and he was back in the recording studio working on a new album.

But that came to a screeching halt the night his oldest child four-year-old Rivkah went out onto the porch of the family’s second-floor home inJerusalem’s Nachlaot neighborhood to watch the Israel Independence Day fireworks display. As she leaned on the railing it suddenly moved out of place and she went tumbling onto the concrete below.

A short distance away a young man who happened to be a Hatzolah paramedic was waiting for his brother who was late. The young man lost patience and decided to leave cutting through the parking area under the Razel home. Just then Rivkah fell and seconds later the paramedic was there with his rescue equipment trying to resuscitate the child.

Rivkah was rushed unconscious to Hadassah Ein Kerem’s trauma unit. Her prognosis looked bleak.

Yonatan shudders as he recalls the days that followed a time when he and his wife took shifts at Rivkah’s bedside never leaving the child for a moment: “We slept on mattresses beside her bed. Our moods swung between hope and despair but we knew Hashem was with us during those horrific days. And so was our family. You cannot experience such things alone. My wife and I would never have been able to get through this without their help.”

The Razel (formerly Rosler) family is somewhat of a clan in Nachlaot. Professors Michah and Carol Razel moved to the neighborhood close to four decades ago fromNew Yorkwhen Yonatan was a year old — a move that eventually pushed the family to embrace of a Torah lifestyle.

(The senior Rosler-Razels met when they were both studying for doctorates in educational psychology at New YorkUniversity; in Israel Dr. Michah who is originally from Holland lectured at Bar-IlanUniversity— until he decided to leave teaching and become a full-time kollel yungerman. Dr. Carol developed educational testing programs for the Ministry of Education.)

Yonatan and his two brothers singer-songwriter Aharon and Yehudah and sister Ricka (Van Leeuwen) still all live within two blocks of their parents and each other. During the weeks when Rivkah’s situation was critical the entire family banded together in shifts so that Yonatan and his wife Yael were never without family support at her bedside.

The name “Rivkah bas Yael” was added to Tehillim and prayer lists around the world; tens of thousands of Jews invoked her name in supplication. As the weeks passed Yael Razel said at the time that her greatest fear was that people would begin to forget about her daughter. She and Yonatan knew it was the prayers that were keeping her alive and are convinced that it was those international supplications that have brought her to the miraculous recovery she has achieved to date.

“Around the world it seemed like everyone was attached to her” says Yonatan. “I got a call from the kehillah in Hong Kong that they were mekabel learning hilchos lashon hara for her recovery. A man came to my house said was taking on an extra chumrah with his tzitzis for her merit. There was a huge awakening and I’m sure in that zchus she was cured.”

Two weeks after the accident following a tear-filled Lag B’Omer in Meron Yonatan and 19 other men conducted a special prayer ritual together with a day-long fast to tip the scales in Rivkah’s favor. The family also received the blessing and guidance of Rav Mordechai Eliyahu ztz”l who instructed them to take an article of Rivkah’s clothing and perform the pre-Yom Kippur kaparos ritual with it. Soon the doctors began to notice incremental improvements in her condition.

The turning point came suddenly — and says Yonatan it was definitely more spiritual than physical. “It was during those worst days when Rivkah was in a deep coma ” Yonatan explains. “The days were passing and there was no sign that Rivkah would wake up. And then one morning — it was very early in the morning — my brother Aharon who had spent the night shift with me went to daven vasikin. I was still sleeping and when I awoke I found a note from Aharon: Have you made emotional preparations for the big miracle Hashem is going to perform for you today?

“The note shook me up. It was as if a new light was shining on me. Suddenly the awareness that each day was actually an open miracle from Hashem penetrated my consciousness. I became aware of how I had to thank Him each and every day for this miracle. From that point on hope prevailed over despair and with this new recognition the most amazing thing happened — Rivkah’s condition began to improve in the most amazing way.

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