88-year-old Rav Tzvi Kushelevsky brings his own bechor Into Avraham Avinu’s covenant

Photos: Lipa Mazor, Mishpacha archives

It was surely the story of the week in the Jewish newsfeeds: In a modern-day Avraham Avinu-like miracle, 88-year-old Rav Tzvi Kushelevsky, rosh yeshivah of Heichal HaTorah in Jerusalem, had his first child. While Rav Tzvi could have sufficed with saying, “My students are my children,” he insisted on a child of his own with unswerving faith in the knowledge that nothing is beyond HaKadosh Baruch Hu’s reach

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hen dancing broke out in the streets of Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood outside Rav Tzvi Kushelevsky’s yeshivah last week, it didn’t take long for the extraordinary news to spread around the world: The Rosh Yeshivah, at the age of 88, was celebrating the birth of his firstborn son.

Reminiscent of then 99-year-old Avraham Avinu when the angel told him he’d have a line of continuity through his wife Sarah, the joy in Yeshivas Heichal HaTorah after the standing-room only bris this past Sunday is still overflowing. And amid the tumult sits the beaming Rosh Yeshivah, who last week was on the receiving end of an open miracle, his legions of spiritual sons finally joined by a biological one. He’s endlessly elated — but not really surprised.

“Hashem’s ‘miracle bank’ is infinite,” Rav Tzvi declares as we sit in his private apartment in the yeshivah building. “There is no yiush, no despair in the world at all! We say on Purim, ‘Lehodia shekol kovecha lo yeivoshu lo yikalmu lanetzach kol hachosim Bach — to make known that all who place hope in You shall not be put to shame, nor shall all those who put their trust in you be disgraced…’ ”

Over the last week, the entire Jewish world and beyond has been talking about Rav Tzvi Kushelevsky’s miracle — the birth of a baby boy to his second wife whom he married six years ago as a widower, after he and his first wife of over half a century remained childless. But all the hype is just fine with him. He’s happy to publicly thank Hashem for this most precious and unusual gift, to be mekadesh Sheim Shamayim and to strengthen others who are coping with challenges and difficulties and mostly, waiting many long years for children of their own.

“If we believe that HaKadosh Baruch Hu doesn’t give a person a challenge that he cannot withstand, it gives us strength to grasp onto our emunah and not give up,” the Rosh Yeshivah says. “What helped me personally during all these years was the thought that HaKadosh Baruch Hu surely wants me to succeed, and surely wants me to have a yeshuah.”

It’s a little hard to grasp the depth of the words, and furthermore, how does someone facing similar challenges continue to hope and not give up? People who’ve waited a long time for a yeshuah generally reach a point where they realize it’s time to back down and submit to the Will of Hashem. When is it appropriate to continue to plead, and when is it time to come to terms with reality?

“There is no such thing as stopping to daven,” the Rosh Yeshivah declares firmly, and it soon becomes a little clearer why the Rosh Yeshivah has merited what almost no one else in the world has.

“A person does not need to reach a state where he is in despair of salvation and comes to terms with the situation as a sealed decree. One must always daven, not in his own merit, but out of the recognition of the compassion and love that HaKadosh Baruch Hu has for us. A Jew needs to stand in front of Hashem and say: ‘Ribbono shel Olam, I know that there is no One but You, no other power in the world. I know that You are only real goodness and the real Master of compassion. If so, surely and without a doubt You will give me a yeshuah.’ And if we really and truly believe that,” the new father states, “the yeshuah will happen.”

Words from a different time, for a different generation. Even his closest talmidim were awed into silence, especially after what Rav Kushelevsky said next:

“I had a Divine revelation. My father ztz”l came to me in a dream and told me that the Ari Hakadosh will soon be coming to me in a dream and will promise me a great yeshuah. And in preparation for this dream, my father pleaded with me to believe what the Ari Hakadosh was going to say. Indeed, that’s what happened. I heard the good news from them both. Although everyone has dreams, I knew that this dream was true. Real dreams don’t come randomly — and when they come after Torah study, we merit an additional level of revelation. That’s because Torah illuminates the eyes and makes it possible to have a different view on challenges in life. The Torah gives us the ability to get the strength to withstand all that is happening to us. And we have to remember to never stop believing for a minute, and to contemplate constantly on what Hashem wants from us in any situation.

“For the klal, Hashem wants to bring the Geulah, but He wants our help,” Rav Tzvi continues. “So how do we bring the Geulah, and how can we draw down yeshuos for Klal Yisrael and for each individual? In the end, everything depends on our kavanah. It will happen if we serve Hashem not to receive reward in This World and in Olam Haba, and not even to merit to have a high place in Gan Eden, but rather for one purpose: to bring nachas ruach to Hashem. When we internalize this deep in our hearts, when the goal is purely l’Sheim Shamayim, there are yeshuos.”