by Rabbi Tzvi Hartman
Reprinted from Beis Moshiach Magazine
A few years after my wife Rivka Tova and I married, we still did not have any children. We began undergoing tests by well-known fertility experts. After a number of years, at the end of our visit with one of the top fertility doctors, he told us candidly, "The way it looks is that you simply cannot have children." We left his office, distressed and in pain, and worst of all, not knowing what to do next. In the wake of the doctor's diagnosis, our health- care plan ruled that they would no longer pay for treatments.
Months passed. I decided that the time had come to visit the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and to ask for his blessing. We decided to travel before Yom Kippur and to spend the rest of the festive month of Tishrei with the Rebbe. We took with us all of our medical records.
My wife and I merited to have a private audience with the Rebbe. We handed our medical records, detailing every treatment we had undergone, to the Rebbe. The Rebbe scanned each page at tremendous speed. From the Rebbe's questions and comments, we understood that the Rebbe had absorbed all the details. The Rebbe said that the conclusion of the doctor that we would never have children was incorrect.
"There is no need for miracles, you will have sons and daughters through natural means," the Rebbe announced. He instructed us to approach Dr. Seligson. "He will tell you what you need to do."
I had never heard of Dr. Seligson. I assumed that he was a big expert at some clinic. It surprised me when I was directed to a Chasidic Jew in talit and tefilin, praying in 770. Dr. Seligson was, in fact, a practicing physician. However, the Rebbe would send him people who needed a miraculous cure and the Rebbe would provide him with "healing tools" in the form of wine from the Rebbe's kiddush cup and matzos from the Rebbe's Passover seder. I approached Dr. Seligson, and before I finished introducing myself, he pulled out a piece of paper with the name of a fertility doctor in Manhattan.
We arranged an appointment with the doctor. When we reached his office, we told him that we were sent by the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He smiled, took out the New York Times, and showed us a photograph of a recent public gathering of the Rebbe. I looked at the picture and showed him where I was.
And that was basically the end of the appointment! As we spoke no English and he spoke no Hebrew, there was no common language. (We had asked the Rebbe if we should take along a translator and he had said it was not necessary.) So after a few minutes we said goodbye and left. I have no idea what the Rebbe accomplished with the appointment but we understood that this was part of some higher plan.
When we returned to 770, we wrote a letter to the Rebbe saying that we had visited that doctor and asking what to do further. A few hours later, we got a response that when we return home to Israel, we should visit a certain professor in Tel Aviv and say that the Rebbe sent us to him.
As soon as we arrived in Israel, we went to visit that professor. Of course, we told him that we were sent by the Rebbe. He went through our medical file, carried out a series of tests, and then suggested a certain treatment.
Before beginning the treatment, we wrote to the Rebbe and the answer was clear that this treatment was unnecessary. We conveyed the Rebbe's answer to the doctor, who got upset with us. "You come to consult with me and in practice you listen to the Rebbe?" He remained adamant and we wrote the Rebbe again. This time, the answer was to approach a different doctor.
We sought out another expert, a top doctor in Asaf HaRofeh Hospital. After an extensive examination, he suggested a drug treatment. Once again, we wrote to the Rebbe. We got an answer to check with yet another doctor.
After some searching, we found Professor Polishok of Hadassah Ein Kerem, who ruled that the only possible solution was surgery. Again, we wrote to the Rebbe. The Rebbe's reply was three words: "Heed [the advice of] Professor Polishok." This clearly meant to undergo the operation.
The night before the surgery, we came to the hospital. The surgeon entered our room and said he would like to do some tests. After some time, he returned beaming. "I usually do not do tests before surgery. This is the first time ever that I decided to do such tests. I am happy to inform you that you are discharged; there is no need for surgery. You have good news..."
We stood in shocked silence, euphoric. After 10 years of marriage the doctor was informing us that my wife was expecting without any form of treatment. The Rebbe's blessing that there was no need for miracles and that we would have children through natural means was now being fulfilled.
We returned home and to our great surprise, found a letter from the Rebbe in the mailbox. The letter was a response to a question that I had asked on an unrelated topic a long time before, to which I had not received an answer. After answering the question, the Rebbe added in his own handwriting at the bottom of the note, "with blessing for good news." The Rebbe had delayed the answer so that it would arrive at exactly the right time.
Nine months later, the brit (circumcision) of our son took place. Despite the former medical impossibility, we had sons and daughters as the Rebbe said, in a completely natural fashion without any outside intervention.
