Rav Avrohom Mordechai Alter of Warsaw was the Chiddushei HaRim’s eldest child, and, like all the other children of Rav Yitzchok Meir of Ger, he was unwell. The Chiddushei HaRim had lost all his other children and now Rav Avrohom Mordechai, just thirty years old, was sick again; death was calling at his door and it looked like he would succumb and leave the world with no son as his heir. The doctors had given up hope, and it seemed like Rav Avrohom Mordechai was already in the final throes of death, when his childhood friend, Rav Yaakov Arye of Radzimin, leaned over and whispered in his ear, “I have one piece of advice left for you, my dear friend: ask Hashem to grant you life, long enough to merit having a son you don’t yet have!”
The Chiddushei HaRim also approached the sickbed and told his dying son, “You must know that it is a mitzva to desire to live, as it says, ‘Choose life – uvocharta vachaim!’ Please, my son, strengthen yourself – choose life and get well!”
Rav Avrohom Mordechai strengthened himself and with Herculean effort and his last strength, he sat up and cried out, “Ribbono Shel Olam, please grant me the gift of life so that I can have a son – I shall name him Yehuda, as it says, ‘This time – odeh es Hashem – I shall thank G-d!”
A miracle occurred and Rav Avrohom Mordechai recovered! The next year, he did indeed have a son, and with Rav Chaim Meir Yechiel, the Seraph of Mogolintza, as his sandak, the baby was brought into the bris of Avrohom Avinu and named “Yehudah Leib” as promised! Rav Avrohom Mordechai told his wife, Esther, “I named him Yehuda and he will cause all the hearts of Klal Yisrael to praise and give thanks – lehodos LaShem!” The Sefas Emes used to say about himself, “My father named me Yehuda, which means “thanksgiving”, because he was healed from his sickness in my merit, and I feel this within me as well; each day and night I never tire of ceaselessly giving thanks – lehodos LaShem!” (Marbitzei Torah BeOlam HaChassidus, Vol, II p. 83–84)
