This past week we celebrated a Pidyon Haben for the newly arrived baby of my daughter Shifra and son-in-law Ben. They knew the baby’s gender before the birth and spent a lot of time thinking about what to name the baby. Baruch Hashem both sides of the family have had many babies, so that most of the names of our beloved deceased family who had passed on were covered.
My husband and I live in Eretz Yisroel, b”H, so before the baby was born I flew in for the birth. My father-in-law spoke with the parents – his grandchildren – who decided that they wanted to choose a name that would honor and remember my father-in-law’s brother. That triggered a series of events and memories I want to share with you now; read on, and let me know what you think.
We are very blessed in that my children have a strong connection to their grandparents; when the Sages say that grandparents can also be called “parents” they are surely speaking of our family. B”H, my children feel connected: weekly calls and videos, meaningful conversations, and beautiful visits all make up part of that bonding. As part of this, my in-laws would invite one child a summer to visit with them for a month. My father-in-law always joked that each of the kids would love to be (and would be) an amazing “only child”! So for a month in the summer he could make that happen…
During this magical visit, my in-laws would make sure that our kids visited the other members of our family who lived in the States, and his brother, “Uncle Albert,” was at the top of the list! He was my father-in-law’s only sibling and they had a very close connection. Going to Uncle Albert always involved treats and interesting sideshows: he lived in the Bronx, and that became a history lesson in itself. He also loved talking to the kids (the ones who came each year were between 11 and 13 years old) and finding out what their interests were, and sharing his own interests with them. One time he discussed coin collecting with my daughter Shifra, and Uncle Albert decided he would collect some coins for Shifra since she seemed interested in that.
A few years later my father-in-law was visiting with Uncle Albert and he said, “Hey, I have this for Shifra.” It was a bag of silver dollar coins. My father-in-law wondered what he should do with it and asked Uncle Albert. Mind you, Shifra was around 12 at the time, and living in Israel; how would he send her the heavy coins?! Uncle Albert – who had only two daughters, and was not religiously observant said, “Well, hold on to it and she will get married, have a son, and use it for his Pidyon Haben.” Very odd, but whatever: so my father-in-law shrugged and said “Ok,” and took it home and put it away with a note saying, “Given to Shifra by Albert”.
Albert passed away in June 2006… Shifra’s wedding was at the end of 2018.
Four years later – in the beginning of the summer of 2022 – Shifra called my father-in-law – her Saba – saying, “We had a baby boy today! Mazel tov to the Saba Raba (great-grandfather)! We are planning to name our baby after Uncle Albert.”
As my father-in-law was packing to fly to Florida to be at the bris he came across the coins and suddenly remembered! How min haShomayim that they were naming the baby after Uncle Albert; how “prophetic” he was to have given these coins for the ceremony! We all felt that hashgacha prattis was moving things for us.
The baby had a bris and was named and it was beautiful. Many moving words were spoken about Uncle Albert, and the warmth and care he always gave to his grand-nieces and nephews were experienced once again by all of those that were around. Then, thirty days later, Aryeh Asher had his Pidyon Haben, and the five silver dollar coins that Uncle Albert had dedicated to the Mitzvah were indeed used to redeem his great-grand-nephew from the Cohen.
So far “amazing”, right? But there’s one more thing you should know: The pidyon haben fell on the exact date of Uncle Albert’s yahrzeit!!! We know that here are no “coincidences” in this world: Uncle Albert had dedicated these coins to a Mitzvah and Hashem berachamav had made sure that they would be used for a Mitzvah that would elevate his neshama in the greatest way, le’einei kulanu.
May Uncle Albert’s neshama have an Aliyah, and may his namesake – Aryeh Asher ben Yonatan Binyamin – merit to grow and bring nachas to his namesake, his family, and all klal Yisroel!
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