By Rabbi David Ashear
Rabbi Menachem Stein
On Rosh Hashanah, we read the parashah relating to Sarah Imeinu having a child and the haftarah of Channah having a child. Chazal tell us (Yevamos 64b) that Sarah was an Ailonis, which means it was not physically possible for her to conceive. Chazal also tell us (ibid. 64a) that one of the reasons Hashem decreed that Sarah be barren was because He loves listening to the prayers of tzaddikim.
Rabbi Menachem Stein asked: It says elsewhere that we are not supposed to pray for Hashem to change nature and perform open miracles, so how could it be that Hashem wanted Sarah to pray for a child if it would have entailed an open miracle for her to conceive?
Physical Change Can Happen on Rosh Hashanah
Rabbi Stein explained that on Rosh Hashanah, everything is created anew. For a physical change to happen on Rosh Hashanah, it is not a miracle. It is in the nature of the day. In fact, Sarah became capable of having children on the day of Rosh Hashanah. What was true last year does not have to be so this year. Everything is a new creation, and it gives us an opportunity to be zocheh to great blessings.
Rabbi Stein told of a girl—we’ll call her Ilana—whom he and his wife occasionally hired as a babysitter. One day, Ilana told Mrs. Stein that she did not want to go home after the job was finished. The Steins investigated and found out that she came from a broken home where conditions were not ideal.
With her parents’ permission, she began to spend her days with the Steins, just going home to sleep. Ilana eventually married an outstanding Torah student and moved to another city. Eight years passed, but she did not have children. She consulted with top specialists in America, who told her that her chances of having a baby were very slim. Toward the end of Elul one year, she contacted the Stein family, asking if she and her husband could come to them for Rosh Hashanah. She remembered praying at Yeshivat Ohr Yisrael in Petach Tikvah in her youth and said that she never found another minyan since for the Yamim Nora’im that was as spiritually elevating as that one.
Remained Focuses Throughout the Entire Tefillah
The Steins happily welcomed the couple. For the entire two-day Yom Tov, Ilana did not engage in mundane talk, only in Tehillim, Torah, or tefillah. She had heard an inspiring speech about how Rosh Hashanah can change anything and was determined to do whatever she could to merit having a baby. She went to shul early in the morning on Rosh Hashanah and remained focused throughout the entire tefillah.
When the baal korei read from the haftarah about Elkanah asking Channah why she was crying— wasn’t he better to her than ten sons?—Ilana burst into loud and piercing sobs. The baal korei could not continue reading. Ilana’s cries kept getting stronger and she could not hold them back.
The congregants stood there in trepidation, somberly contemplating what the day of Rosh Hashanah truly meant. After a pause of over five minutes, the haftarah reading resumed and the prayers continued. The rest of the tefillah that day was the best it ever was in that yeshivah. Everyone was inspired by Ilana’s tears.
Tears on Rosh Hashanah that Seemed to Have Pierced the Heavens
The students asked the rabbi afterward about that episode. Who had been crying in such a heart-rending manner? He explained that it was a woman who wanted a child, just like Channah. Nine months later, Rabbi Stein received a phone call from Ilana, informing him of the upcoming bris milah for her baby. Today, baruch Hashem, she has eight children. Her emotion and tears on Rosh Hashanah seemed to have pierced the Heavens and recreated her into a woman who can have children.
Rabbi Stein concluded by saying that another woman, who heard him recounting this story on Kol Halashon, was so inspired by it that she told her niece to listen. That same year, she invited her niece to come pray with her on Rosh Hashanah in Yeshivat Kol Torah in Bayit Vegan. Her niece had been married for thirteen years without having children.
When the baal korei reached the part of Elkanah asking Channah why she was crying, she motioned to her niece: This is the time you should pour out your heart to Hashem! And, indeed, that year she was blessed with a baby of her own.
Rosh Hashanah contains tremendous power. We should use the day properly in all aspects, especially in tefillah. We should accept Hashem’s sovereignty as we are supposed to, we should accept upon ourselves to improve our ways, and, be’ezras Hashem, we should all be inscribed in the Sefer HaChaim.
Reprinted from the Rosh Hashanah 5784 edition of the At the ArtScroll Shabbos Table. Excerpted from the ArtScroll book – Living Emunah on Shidduchim by Rabbi David Ashear.
