The Gift Of Life

By Mrs. M. A

The Rabbi in the video is Rabbi Levi Hecht,son of Rabbi JJ Hecht who had a Shul
in Flatbush. My husband, as an attorney, arranged some legal matters
for the Shul pro bono, and as a sign of gratitude Rabbi Hecht offered
to introduce us to the Rebbe zt"l for a bracha. My husband Abe z'l was
introduced to Rabbi Hecht by a very close friend, Steve Rubel, who is
a childhood friend of Rabbi Hecht. They knew we were trying for a
while to have a baby, and they both thought it would be a good idea to
meet the Rebbe zt"l.
A year after receiving the Rebe’s blessing our only child Gabrielle was born.
I have b"h a lot of nachas from her.
I'm not sure it such an extraordinary story to write about, as there must be so many stories like this.
To someone not knowing the background info, it might seem like a simple meeting. To me it meant the greatest gift of all, the gift of life.

Unfortunately my husband passed away 4 years ago. Although his life down here was short, he did a lot for Yiddishkeit. I hope this video will inspire the viewers to do another mitzvah leilui nishmas Avrohom Shoel ben Yosef.

Rebbeclips spoke to Rabbi Levi Hecht to hear his side of the story.

"The A's? Sure I can tell you the story!

You only saw the end of the video. Before they passed by the Rebbe a whole group passed by. This is what happened. Shortly after my father R' Yakov Yehuda (JJ) passed away, the need for restructuring the board of the shul arose and a member meeting was called. One of the members, Mr Steve Rubel, brought along Mr. Abe A. to oversee the legal aspects of the procedures. After the new board was established, we were all going to go to the Rebbe and I, as the new Rabbi was supposed to introduce them.
My father had always been close with the Rebbe and felt at ease talking to him. To me this was something I had never done before. As you know, standing in front of the Rebbe is always an intense experience. Having to introduce people to the Rebbe was a complete nightmare. I didn't know how much or how little to speak. When i started introducing one person, the Rebbe started talking and I was being poked by one of the bystanders hinting me to keep quiet. Then I was pushed to introduce the next person. I lost myself completely and decided to try to say as little as possible. Mr. A. didn't really belong in the group but since Mr. Rubel had told me that he had been married for several years and not been blessed with children yet, we decided to invite him and his wife to come along. They were the last ones in the group to walk by the Rebbe. By then I was keeping my introductions to a bare minimum. Abe asked for a Bracha to have children and the Rebbe gave him a dollar and a blessing. His wife Monique, who was right behind him, received a dollar accompanied by the mainstream "bracha vehatzalacha" that everyone would get.
Several weeks after this event I was reviewing the video and suddenly it occurred to me that the Rebbe had not given any special blessing to Mrs. A. It seemed as if the Rebbe had not realized she was his wife but just the next person in the long line of people waiting to receive a dollar. Right away I called Abe and apologized for having forfeited the opportunity to 'arrange' a blessing for children for him and his wife and offered to take him to the Rebbe again. This time we would go specifically to ask for a blessing for children and no misunderstandings would take place. Abe told me he would answer me in a few days. Several days later he called me back saying "The Rebbe does know who my wife is. Mazal Tov . My wife is pregnant".
I have often retold the story of the miracle baby, but to me the punch line of the story is that "The Rebbe DOES know who my wife is". The Rebbe as leader of the generation, knows each and everyone of us and blesses us even if we don't realize it at first glance."



Editor's note:If you have a Rebbe video with a story behind it that you would like to share, contact us @ Rebbevideo@gmail.com

Abe z"l Gabrielle and Monique On Gabrielle's Bat Mitzvah day in 2004