A Tale of Two Children
When the couple came to register their three-year old child in the Talmud Torah in Bnei Brak, the principal noted that they were far more excited than ordinary parents who make a routine application.
“Don’t you remember us?” they inquired of the principal as tears streamed down the face of the mother.
When he replied in the negative, they reminded him of what took place four years earlier. Childless for many years they had approached the rav of the Ramat Elchanan community in Bnei Brak, Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein, for advice in how to seek Heavenly help. He relayed to them that the Chafetz Chaim had suggested that raising someone else’s child could bring the Heavenly blessing of raising a child of their own. He therefore suggested that they offer to pay the tuition of a child in the local Talmud Torah whose parents couldn’t afford to do so and this would be tantamount to raising that child.
They followed this advice and made an arrangement to pay a year’s tuition for a poor child in the Talmud Torah they were now visiting. It was in that year that they were blessed with a son. Even though they lived a considerable distance from this particular school, they insisted on registering their son in the school where their miracle began.
