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A Special Gift From God
A Southfield couple travel with their sons to Israel where they once prayed for children.
MARCY TATELBAUM
Special to the Jewish News
ast August, my family traveled to Israel for
our oldest son Meir's first haircut; upsherin,
as it is called in Yiddish or chalekah in
Hebrew. We also went to visit my husband's
family, all of whom live in Israel. We went to Israel for
Meir's haircut because of the story that surrounds his
conception and birth.
My husband, Yehuda, and I were trying to conceive
a baby for three years with no success. While attending
my brother-in-law's wedding in May of 1999, his new
grandmother, Mrs. Esther Abergil — his wife's pater-
nal grandmother — approached us and forwardly
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asked, "Do you want children?
Somewhat taken aback — people in the U.S are
not as open about fertility problems as they are in
Israel — but my husband and I answered, "Yes, of
course." She then said to us, "You have to come with
me to pray at the grave of the Baba Sali," a very
famous and respected Moroccan rabbi who was
known for giving blessings to people to conceive, for
prosperity, etc.
As an elderly Moroccan woman and a very strong
believer in prayer, Mrs. Abergil continued telling us
about all the times God had answered her and her
family's prayers after praying at Baba Sali's grave.
With only three days left before we returned to the
United States — and two of those days being Friday
and Shabbat — we thanked her for her concern and
explained that we really did not have time to travel all
the way to Netivot. Insistent that we must go, she lit-
erally shouted at us, "Do you want children?"
Well, her sincerity and continued persistence per-
suaded us to make arrangements to go that next day,
Friday afternoon, which was no easy trip. We traveled
from Kiryat Arbah, where my husband's family lives,
to Bet Shemesh to pick up Mrs. Abergil and about six
of her family members, to Netivot, totaling about
three hours of traveling.
L
Kiddush Cup Given
When we got there, we had no idea that it was such a
beautifully built-up shrine that hundreds of people
visit on a daily basis to pray.
We went to pray and then drank the customary cup
of water for good luck that God should answer one's
prayers. We then had a seudah (festive meal) that Mrs.
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2003
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Meir, before and after his haircut.
Abergil prepared for all of us.
As we were leaving, Mrs. Abergil said to us, "You'll
see, within a year you'll become pregnant with a boy
and you will come back here when he's 3 to cut his
hair."
She also purchased a Kiddush cup for us with a pic-
ture of the Baba Sali on it and said, "God willing, you
will use this at your son's brit this year." We quickly
left the grave in order to return in time for Shabbat.
After returning to America, months passed and still
I was not pregnant. Skeptical in the first place of the
entire trip to the grave and what I had started to term
and ridicule as "silly voodoo," I stopped thinking
about our trip there.
Final Instructions
A few weeks later, my husband was reading a book
that we had bought on our trip called Holy Sites and
Graves of the Righteous in Israel which had a section
about the Baba Sali and his gravesite.
In the book was a story about a couple having
problems becoming pregnant who went to the Baba
Sali, when he was alive, for a blessing. The Baba Sali
told them that they would not conceive until they got
rid of a book that does not belong in their Jewish
home.
After searching and searching, they could not find
any such book. They returned to the Baba Sali after
even more searching. He told them that they had a