The father of a newborn baby girl once asked R’ Shach if he should make a kidush. R’ Shach’s reply was if you finally had a baby after 8 years of waiting, you surely would make a kidush. So now that Hashem saved you from all that pain, shouldn’t you make a kidush?!
A father of a newborn baby boy called a mohel to hire him for the bris. Because of the palpable excitement of the father that was conveyed on the call, the mohel asked how long he waited to have this child. The father told him that he had been waiting 22 years for this child. This enthused the mohel and he looked forward with excitement to perform a bris on such an occasion. The day of the bris comes and the mohel arrives, expecting that the event would be teeming with unusual excitement. Of course there was excitement but it was the usual excitement you would expect at a bris, nothing out of the ordinary. Following the bris, the mohel heard a 21-year-old boy say. “Abba, don’t worry. It’s after the bris. I’ll take care of the younger children and my younger sister will take care of the girls.” The mohel realized that the father had ten children. The mohel then approached the father about this. The father said, “We are married 22 years and each child is a gift from Hashem. Must a person be childless to realize such a gift? I waited 22 years for this particular child. Each child is unique and special.”
Rabbi Alt merited to learn under the tutelage of R’ Mordechai Friedlander ztz”l for close to five years. He received semicha from R’ Zalman Nechemia Goldberg ztz”l. Rabbi Alt has written on numerous topics for various websites and publications and is the author of six books including the recently released Dazzling Money Insights. His writings, some of which have been translated into Yiddish, Hebrew, German and French, inspire people across the spectrum of Jewish observance to live with the vibrancy and beauty of Torah. He lives with his wife and family in Kiryat Yearim (where the Aron was for 20 years [Shmuel 1, 7:1,2]) where he studies, writes and teaches. The author is passionate about teaching Jews of all levels of observance.
R' Yitzchak Zilberstein (Shiurei Torah L’rofim, volume 4, p. 218) told of a woman who had nine children and didn’t want to have more because it was difficult for her. She asked R' Shach for his opinion. He told her that his parents had ten children and when his mother was pregnant with him, the doctors recommended she abort the pregnancy. His mother ignored the doctor’s directives and gave birth to him. In World War Two, R' Shach’s first eight siblings were murdered. Only he and his sister, numbers nine and ten in the family, survived.
