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| Magazine Feature |

Rays of Light    

 Despite being sight and hearing impaired, Avichai Sheli achieved his teenage dream: coveted first place in the International Bible Contest — and that’s far from his only triumph


Photos: Itzik Blenitzky

Avichai Sheli will never forget the day he was called into the principal’s office as a tenth-grader in yeshivah in Kfar Maimon. “They told me my oldest sister had been killed in a car accident. I remember feeling like I was being sucked into a whirlpool of pain and grief. I asked myself, ‘What does Hashem want from me? I’m both hard of hearing and blind. How much more pain can I tolerate?’ I wanted to just fall apart. Somehow, I continued learning and davening, going through the motions, but I was in a spiritual crisis and my heart wasn’t in it.”

Avichai takes a breath, and I take a good look at this candid and courageous man. His eyes are fixed on some indiscriminate point in the distance as he continues: “It took a few years until I began to understand and internalize that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has His own calculations. I began to come to terms with the fact that not only do I not understand everything, but I pretty much understand nothing.”

In conversation with Avichai, it certainly doesn’t seem like he’s been shaken by a crisis of faith. He peppers his speech with long, often obscure quotes from Tanach, and it’s no wonder. Despite being sight and hearing impaired since early childhood, he achieved the unbelievable as a teenager: coveted first place in the International Bible Contest. And that’s far from his only triumph. He went on to serve in IDF military intelligence, earned both business and law degrees, works today as an investment advisor, is married with a family, and is a motivational speaker who continues to inspire others facing seemingly insurmountable challenges.

“Nothing was easy,” he admits. “But I discovered that sometimes, from this low place, within the stumbling and the difficulty, it’s possible to grow and reach heights that we never could have from a state of comfort. ‘Veholachti ivrim baderech lo yadau b’nesivos lo yadu adricheim [And I will lead the blind on a road they did not know; in paths they did not now I will lead them. I will make darkness into light before them],’” he quotes Yeshayahu from memory. “I know that Hashem has been with me along the whole route.”

Excerpted from Mishpacha Magazine. To view full version, SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE or LOG IN.

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