Rabbi Joey Haber shared a story:
A relative of mine, who studies in a Kollel in Lakewood, personally told me the following. Like many of his friends, he is married with a family, as is the case for those learning in Kollel. However, one of the other Kollel members had been married for five years and hadn’t been blessed with children. With the many other young men and women taking note of this, endeavoring in every which way to be supportive, encouraging and helpful to this young couple became a collective undertaking.
Special efforts in Davening and other forms of emotional support were extended in the hopes of easing the couple through their moments of challenge and eliciting Hashem’s Brachah. Significant resources were similarly poured into being there for them, and this couple didn’t take it for granted by any measure. They knew how much everyone else around them was at their side and behind them.
In fact, the husband was so appreciative and good natured that after a member of the Kollel had their fourth child, he opened his home to the Kollel member’s family and hosted the Shalom Zachor on the Friday night before the bris.
The members of the Kollel absolutely loved this man, so much so that they decided to arrange for someone to make a visit to Rav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, and ask for a Brachah. Entering Rav Chaim’s personal study, the circumstances were explained. Rav Chaim advised as such:
“Let all the friends gather for the purpose of helping one irreligious Jewish child obtain a Torah education. Since you are aiming to help this man and his wife bring a Neshamah into this world, do something Middah K’Neged Middah, measure for measure. Help a child who is not religious receive a Jewish education, through which he will become religious. By doing so, you are enabling a Neshamah to return to Hashem, and through that, may Hashem grant this man and his wife the Brachah of meriting to bring a Neshamah down to this earth. Do this, and watch what Hashem does.”
On January 7, 2020, the boy who was chosen to enter a Jewish school to receive a Torah education began his studies at a Yeshivah. And just under a year later, on January 6, 2021, this man and his wife had a baby boy. My relative, at the time he related this story to me, said, “I’m now on my way to the Bris, and Joey, I just needed to tell you this story.” Hashem runs the world. That’s all there is to say. Every aspect and facet of it, calculated down to the smallest minutiae and precise detail!
Reprinted from the Parshas Shoftim 5785 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
