For 25 Years, They Waited for a Child, and Then a Miracle

THE GABAI, RAV BARAK BERBER, IN A LIVE INTERVIEW ON KOL BARAMA RADIO, SPEAKS ABOUT THE MIRACLE OF A SON BORN AFTER 25 YEARS.

“RAV BERLAND SHLIT”A TOLD ME THAT HE’S GOING TO PRISON TO WORK A MIRACLE FOR ME”

The full interview

Kol Barama: “Shavua tov, Barak”

Barak: “Shavua tov u’mvorach”

KB: “Tell us about your miracles and wonders with Hashem’s kindnesses, about the wondrous things, share with us, Am Yisrael, say ‘Toda Raba’ to Hashem.”

B: “Baruch Hashem, may His Name be praised forever.  First of all, a thousand times toda raba to Hashem, how many Mizmor L’Toda (Tehilim 100) we said.

“Many people prayed for us over 25 years.  I met every day people who said to me: We said for you Tehilim, prays, hisbodedus.  What not?

“Now, I identify with all the people… that I was on the other side, without children.  How many disappointments, expectations, how many prayers, how much you already give up.  There’s no segula that we didn’t do, there’s no place that we weren’t there, how many commitments. What we didn’t do!  But, baruch Hashem – in the end, we see that there’s no despair in the world at all!

“How much a person [needs to be] stubborn.  Baruch Hashem, we also adopted a child, such a tzaddik that I’m sure that he opened up for us this whole path.”

KB: “Where do you live, Barak?”

B: “I live in Holon.”

KB: “How old is the child that you adopted?”

B: “He was 10.  Now he’s 14 and a half.”

KB: “4 and a half years did their [work], with Hashem’s kindnesses, with the prayers…  And now you are here publicizing the amazing miracle.

“Do you know to what to attribute the miracle?  Of, course, the prayers?”

B: “Look, I’ll tell you.  There were many who prayed for us, baruch Hashem.  We also went through a year and half which weren’t easy from a standpoint of all types of troubles we went through.  I’m sure this is also in the merit of the child.  Also, every Shabbos, we were careful to sing, ‘Zera chaya v’kyama’ [‘living and enduring offspring’], anyone who knows the prayer in Nusach Sfard.  Every Shabbos we would sing this.

“ABOUT A YEAR AND A HALF TO TWO YEARS AGO, RABBI ELIEZER BERLAND SAID TO ME: ‘I SEE THAT THERE’S ALREADY NOTHING TO DO.  I HAVE TO GO; IN ANOTHER HALF-YEAR I’M GOING TO PRISON, AND IN THE MERIT OF THIS, YOU WILL HAVE CHILDREN MAMASH.  THERE WERE MANY THINGS TO A POINT THAT IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO LIST THEM: HOW MANY COMMITMENTS WHICH WE OBLIGATED OURSELVES TO CHARITY AND TO MEALS AT THE GRAVES OF TZADDIKIM.  HOW MANY TREATMENTS.

“We called him Yosef Binyamin after Yosef HaTzaddik who we’re very connected to, because my brother was injured in a terrorist attack there, and Binyamin is the name of my father, and we also intended Binyamin HaTzaddik.  They’re both the children of Rachel Emeinu, who my wife lit for her a candle regularly throughout the entire pregnancy, and in the merit of this she had mamash an easy pregnancy.  Many prayed for us by Rachel Emeinu.  This is a child of the Jewish people, mamash.”

KB: “May it be fulfilled in you, ‘Hashem should add [“Yosef”] for you another son.’”

B: “Amen.  Anyone who needs…anyone who prays should know that there’s no such thing as despair.  Even though they said to me several times, the doctors said to me that there’s no chance that you’ll have a child, and they only cause despair.  All the time they’re trying to cause despair, but baruch Hashem, this happened.”

KB: “A kollel student came to the Steipler zt”l for five years, and the Steipler told him to return to him.  In the end he said to him, ‘Honorable Rabbi, already seven years I’m praying.  Should I continue to pray?’

“He answered, ‘There is a prayer which is answered after a year or two.  There are those which [are answered only] after ten years.  There are prayers which are answered after 15 years.  So he said and that was it.  The kollel student continued to pray.  When exactly 15 years passed, a son was born to him, and he understood in retrospect the words of the Steipler.  And you held strong for 25 years – your sign is ‘Ko’ [numerical value 25: ‘Thus’] -- ‘Thus’ shall you bless the children of Israel; as you say, a child of the Jewish people.

“We take joy in your happiness and thank Asaf Shefer who shared with us this great and wondrous miracle.  Barak Berber, much mazal tov, and you should raise him with much nachas -- Amen, ken yehi ratzon.”

B: “I wish everyone, anyone who needs it, that this year, in the merit of this baby, that it will open up for everyone, and everyone will have children, and be healed, and [find their] soul mates, bezras Hashem.”

KB: “Amen.”

B: “Hashem should protect you.  Shavua tov.”

See the video (in Hebrew)