“There is no chance that you will have children. You don’t seem to understand that there are cases in which treatments can help but there are cases when they don’t help.”
Dovid and Tzippora of Migdal HaEmek refused to believe the doctor. They were married for a number of years and did not yet have children. They had gone from doctor to doctor and they all said she suffered from a rare problem. Over the years, they underwent tests and many diagnoses until the doctor treating them concluded there was no way the wife could conceive.
Dovid and Tzippora left his office in tears, refusing to believe they would never have children of their own.
Dovid was a child when he made aliya from Russia. A few years later, his family immigrated to Belgium where he married Tzippora who was also from Russia. Both of them were Jews from irreligious families. At a certain point, they met Mrs. Batsheva Zilberstein and through her they began to learn a bit about Torah and mitzvos.
It was only natural for them to report to her about the doctor visit. She tried to convince them to keep the laws of family purity as a way to merit the bracha of children. At first they were not interested in committing to rules that seemed complicated and hard to abide by, but after a while they gave in.
“A short while after we decided to keep the laws of family purity, my wife told me she was expecting a baby!” said Dovid excitedly. This miracle hastened the process of their becoming religious, and at the same time they decided to move to Eretz Yisroel.
They settled in Migdal HaEmek where they became part of the Chabad community. Their son was born and the couple was ecstatic.
A few months went by and Tzippora began dreaming of another child. But she and her husband knew that miracles generally do not repeat themselves. They prayed for a miracle but it wasn’t happening.
Then one day, Dovid told her that he heard that you could write to the Rebbe through the Igros Kodesh. Dovid wrote to the Rebbe that it was hard for them to make peace with the fact that they would not have more children. He put the letter into a volume of letters and the page he opened to was about being careful with tznius. The letter ended with a bracha.
Tzippora committed to being more careful about covering her hair throughout the day. “We had a feeling that the Rebbe had blessed us and we would be witnesses to another miracle,” she said.
Tzippora attended a women’s shiur that took place in the home of Mrs. Penina Levy. The shiur was for Lubavitcher women and mekuravos. When the shiur ended, everyone went on their way and only Tzippora remained with Mrs. Levy. She told her about her request for another child. Mrs. Levy gave her a dollar from the Rebbe. “Over ten years ago, I got 24 dollars from the Rebbe. Take one of them as a segula.”
Some weeks went by and Tzippora was expecting another baby. She knew that the Rebbe’s bracha in the Igros Kodesh and the Rebbe’s dollar had brought about the miracle.
The months passed happily. The couple was hoping for a girl. “We even had a name for her, Rochel, for both of our grandmothers.”
A short while later, Dovid went to Kever Rochel where he prayed that the birth go easily. “I prayed and promised that if it would be a girl, we would name her Rochel.
“About two weeks before the birth, Tzippora suddenly did not feel well. Complications set in and we rushed to the hospital. I asked a friend to write to the Rebbe for her and put the letter into the Igros Kodesh. He did so and read the answer over the phone, ‘B’suros tovos to the entire family and also to Rochel!’ That was the ending of the letter he had opened to.”
Two weeks later, on Rosh Chodesh Kislev, their daughter was born and was named Rochel, of course.
“Rocheli was a few months old when a big problem developed with the apartment we were living in,” continued Dovid. “Having no choice, we moved to a tiny apartment. It was a nightmare that I prefer not to recall. Four people in one room. It was awful. It was during the hot summer months and we, who had lived in Russia and Europe, had not gotten used to living as four people in one little room, while choking in the Israeli summer heat.
“Since we were new immigrants, I tried in various ways to get an apartment through the agency that deals with these things, but all my attempts failed. When we were on the verge of despair we wrote to the Rebbe again. In the Igros Kodesh there was an answer from which I understood we would have to wait until Chanuka, i.e. half a year. I did not see how we could wait until Chanuka but I believed that the Rebbe’s answer is always fulfilled.
“I asked my mashpia, R’ Yosef Segal, about it and he said we needed to make a ‘vessel.’ ‘Write to Amigur (the public housing management company) and the Housing Ministry and explain the terrible situation you are in, and with Hashem’s help, they will find you an apartment,’ he counseled.
“We wrote letters but nothing moved. We went to the Amigur offices in Migdal HaEmek and they agreed to give us a small two room apartment which wasn’t suitable. I insisted on a bigger apartment. To our surprise, we experienced a miracle once again and my wife was expecting our third child. This just strengthened my resolve to insist on a larger apartment.
“It was Kislev, Chanuka was approaching, and we knew we had to make a ‘vessel’ for the Rebbe’s bracha. I went to Amigur and told them to give me what they have. ‘Will a two room 51 meter apartment be enough for you?’ Again, they were talking about a small apartment and I felt that I could not accept it. ‘I have two children and soon, G-d willing, will have a third. How can we live in two small rooms?’
“I left the place without knowing what to do. Then two days before Chanuka, we decided again that based on the Rebbe’s answer we had to take whatever apartment they offered us. I went to the Amigur office again and was surprised. One of the clerks there decided to give us a four room apartment! She gave me two addresses in Migdal HaEmek where there were available apartments with four rooms.
“I went back home and told my wife that the Rebbe had said Chanuka and we had gotten an apartment. I wrote a letter to the Rebbe thanking him for the apartment and asking where I should live. The answer was clear. The Rebbe wrote about illuminating the place by being mekarev people to Judaism. I went back to the office and told them that I wanted to live in the apartment that was in a neighborhood where Russian immigrants live.
“We moved into the new apartment on Chanuka. After all these miracles thanks to the Rebbe, we thank the Rebbe for giving us the gift of children and a home to live in.”
Dovid and Tzippora (as of this writing) have five children and know from where they had the strength to insist on an apartment suitable for a large family. They are illuminating the neighborhood they live in with the founding of a shul for new immigrants in their building. They have also initiated shiurim and activities with new immigrants.
As mentioned in the article, Dovid and Tzippora’s second daughter was born thanks to a bracha in the Igros Kodesh along with a dollar from the Rebbe that Mrs. Penina Levy gave them.
In Tishrei 5750, Mrs. Levy went to the Rebbe as a representative of N’shei Chabad. She had won the annual raffle and her husband and her baby daughter joined her.
At some point, R’ Leibel Groner, the Rebbe’s secretary, asked her husband Avi to go to the office. When he got there, he was surprised when he was given 24 dollars. “These are dollars from the Rebbe meant to be given to N’shei Chabad,” said R’ Groner.
Some of these dollars were raffled off at N’shei Chabad gatherings. Other dollars were given to women who needed a yeshua. Some of them are women who are regular participants in the shiur at the Levy home.
Mrs. Levy’s father is R’ Yitzchok Yadgar from Taanachim who was mekarev many people to Judaism and Chassidus. Mrs. Levy was raised to do hafatza and this is why she hosts a shiur every week which is attended by many mekuravos from Migdal HaEmek and kibbutzim in the area.
“There have been instances,” she says, “where women took a dollar from me and saw a yeshua, whether it was women who had not had children, or there were problems with health or parnasa. Boruch Hashem.”