The Or HaChaim Hakadosh’s yahrtzeit is on the 15th of Tammuz, so we will tell a story about this holy tzaddik.
About a hundred years ago, there was a rabbinic convention in Vilna for Vaad HaYeshivos in the home of the Greineman family. Many gedolim were present, including the Chofetz Chaim, Reb Chaim Ozer, and the Chazon Ish zt'l. After the meeting, before leaving, the Chofetz Chaim came to the kitchen, and he saw the host's daughter, S. Greineman, sitting near the window, checking rice for bugs.
"How many times do you check the rice?" the Chofetz Chaim asked her. She replied that she checks the rice twelve times. The Chofetz Chaim expressed his surprise that she checks the rice so many times. She explained that her relative, the Chazon Ish, would be eating with them, so she wanted to be certain that the food would be at the highest standard of kashrus in honor of the Chazon Ish.
The Chofetz Chaim was impressed by her desire to honor talmidei chachamim, and he blessed her with a long life, always to have a clear mind, and never to need eyeglasses. (The Chofetz Chaim understood that her eyes must be weak because she checked the rice near the window to catch the sunlight.) All of the Chofetz Chaim's brachos materialized. She never needed eyeglasses and lived in good health until she was niftar at ninety-eight years old.
This girl was an orphan, and when she came of age, the Chazon Ish was her shadchan, and she married the gaon, Reb Mordechai Shraga Feivel Eidelman zt'l. The Chazon Ish moved to Eretz Yisrael, and so did the Eidelman couple, who settled in Petach Tikvah. Sixteen years had passed since their wedding, and they were still childless. She came to the Chazon Ish, together with the Chazon Ish's rebbetzin, and expressed her distress that she still didn’t have children. The Chazon Ish gave her a brachah. She said, "I don’t want a brachah; I want a promise that I will have children." The Chazon Ish lowered his head into his hands, and when he raised his head, he said, "I can't promise you that."
She said, "I was an orphan, and you were my shadchan. Now you must take responsibility for the shidduch." The Chazon Ish put his head down once more, and when he raised it, he said, "For this, you need the strength of a gadol. Go to the kever of the Or HaChaim HaKadosh, and there you will have your yeshuah."
It was in 5704 (1944), and she told the Chazon Ish that it wasn't safe to go to Har HaZeisim. The Chazon Ish replied, "I have no other solution."
On the 15th of Tammuz, the Or HaChaim's yahrtzeit, she went to the Or HaChaim's kever at two in the morning together with her relative, the rebbetzin of Reb Beinish Finkel zt'l. They poured out their hearts and prayed for a child. Nine months later, on the 25th of Nissan, she had a son.
RABBI ELIMELECH BIDERMAN
