"Like everything in life, it was all for my own good, it was all a chesed"

From his spartan office and beis medrash on a side street near Jerusalem’s central bus station, the Radoshitzer Rebbe, Rav Aharon Yosef Horonchik, presides over Magdil Yeshuos, an organization that has helped hundreds of couples struggling with infertility, offering practical guidance, medical assistance, and emotional support. On a recent fundraising trip to New York, the Rebbe saw one more instance of the tremendous Hashgachah pratis he experiences regularly in helping couples become families.

After much effort, the Rebbe secured an appointment with a wealthy man for Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 and told his driver to make sure to be on time. For some reason though, the driver was an hour late, and only showed up at 3:30. The Rebbe was naturally quite upset about the delay, but figured he’d try his luck. Indeed, the Rebbe arrived at the house, but was not admitted inside because someone else was already sitting with the gvir. The Rebbe waited and waited, along with another tzedakah collector.

Suddenly, when the gvir opened the door, the other tzedakah collector began to shout to him that in the merit of the Radoshitzer Rebbe, he had a son. “I didn’t have children for eight years, and it’s all in his merit!” he exclaimed.

The Rebbe later repeated the incident to popular darshan and mashpia Rav Elimelech Biderman, who has become a magnet for such stories.

“The man was so moved by what he had heard from the tzedakah collector that he gave me an amount I could not have dreamed about," the Rebbe told Reb Meilech. "And it was all because I came late, at exactly the same time that another collector came. If I’d have gotten there on time, I might not have gotten more than a few dollars. And see, I was angry at the driver for no reason. Like everything in life, it was all for my own good, it was all a chesed. Sometimes we’re zocheh to see it, but even if we aren’t, we have to remember that Hashem always has our back.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 884)