A moving Pidyon HaBen ceremony was held last week for the firstborn son of an American couple who had waited 19 long years to embrace a child.
A bracha and a segulah suggested by Rosh Yeshivah HaGaon HaRav Chaim Feinstein was the catalyst for the yeshuah.
Last year before Shavuos, the couple traveled from their home in the US to celebrate Shavuos in the Old City of Yerushalyim, close to the Kosel.
On Motzei Shavuos, on their way to the airport, the couple stopped in Bnei Brak, accompanied by the gabbai of one of the famous kollel networks in the country, to which the couple had generously donated. Together, they visited the home of HaRav Feinstein to receive his bracha.
The gabbai described the couple’s plight to HaRav Chaim and asked him to help them.
HaRav Chaim turned to the husband and told him that he has a kabbalah that something that is very mesugal to be zocheh to a child is for the wife to go to shul for Shacharis to hear Birchas Kohanim and during the recitation, to stand in the ezras nashim facing the faces of the Kohanim and spread out her palms close together in a way that appears she is receiving into her hands, and at that time she should have kavanah and ask to be blessed with zera shel kayama.
The husband replied that they’re on their way to the airport to return home, and in the US, Birchas Kohanim is only said on Yom Tov. HaRav Chaim replied, “If so, it is better that you postpone the flight and stay another Shabbos in Eretz Yisrael.”
The couple postponed their flight, and on Shabbos, the wife went to shul for Birchas Kohanim. A year later, on Erev Shavuos, the couple celebrated the Pidyon HaBen of their firstborn son, 19 years after their chasunah.
YWN has posted several mofsim stories in the past about HaRav Chaim: including The Yom Kippur Quarantine That Led To 5 Weddings; A Shidduch Tale: A Terror Wave, A Bus Ride, & The Power Of Forgiveness; and The Rosh Yeshivah’s Segulah That Cured A Rare Medical Problem.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
They could also go to a sephardi beit knesset in US.
Mazel tov may you see only nachas from your son and may you now be blessed with many more
They could have also stayed 1 more day – in EY Bircas Kohanim is said every day.
On a separate note, what is the point of that last blurb? Is YWN trying to promote mofsim or Harav Feinstein?
The last paragraph is not appropriate. Rav Chaim Feinstein is a meyuchas Litvish gadol. Trying to promote him as chasidishe or sefardi is not how the litvishe world conducts itself. They judge a person by his midos and Torah learning, not by how many mofsim he did.