Check Your Tefillin

There was a couple that had been childless for seventeen years. The woman had already been treated by the best doctors and professors in Israel. She had tried all the remedies, natural and supernatural. She spared no effort, but nothing helped. The couple visited various rabbis and sages, asking for a blessing for children. They had even discussed starting new lives, separately. In fact they had been at the point of requesting a divorce.

A friend advised them to write a letter to the Rebbe before they took this last, drastic step. They rushed a letter to the Rebbe, pouring out their bitterness and begging him for a blessing for children. With nervous anticipation they awaited the response. Ten days later, the hoped-for letter arrived from New York. With trembling hands and pounding hearts they opened it and pored over every word. A glimmer of light shone in their eyes. "The Rebbe instructs me to check my tefilin," the man said to his wife.

The man took his tefilin, and he and his wife went straight to a scribe who lived nearby. They followed the scribe's work with great anxiety. Nervous silence filled the workroom. Not two minutes passed before the scribe jumped from his seat as if bitten by a snake. He held his head in his hands and shouted, "Look what I see!"

The couple were amazed at what they saw. "Look at that! An entire word is missing! An entire word. And look at which word--rechem." He repeated the word slowly, emphasizing each letter.

The man turned pale. In the very first verse of the section beginning with the words "Sanctify for me the firstborn--peter rechem--of your animals." The word "rechem," which means "womb" was missing. Trepidation was soon replaced with joy. It appeared that this was the solution to the mystery of their years of childlessness.

He told the scribe to prepare new tefilin parchment for him on the spot. Then he sent a thank you letter to the Rebbe, describing what had happened. A second letter quickly came from the Rebbe, containing a blessing for children. The Rebbe wrote that he was now sure that the couple would be able to fulfill the words of the verse fully.

A short time later, the woman joyously informed her husband that she was pregnant.

A few months ago, a baby boy was born to the happy couple.

News of this wonder quickly spread through Jerusalem and made a deep impression in many circles. People began bringing in their tefilin for inspection, and scribes were willing to check tefilin free of charge. In fact, those who were involved in the campaignhad said that many tefilin were found to be missing letters, or words, or to have extra letters. In one case, they even found a pair of tefilin that had photocopies inside. They have now been replaced with tefilin written by hand on parchment as required by Jewish law.