Adapted from: Miracle Baby by Rabbi Yehoshua Frankenhuis

It is the night of Rosh Hashanah 5780 at Yeshivas Heichal HaTorah, Har Nof, Yerushalayim. The final notes of Adon Olam hover in the air as the bachurim surround the rosh yeshivah, Rav Zvi Kushelevsky. They accompany him as he slowly makes his way through the throngs of people, out of the beis midrash, and up the stairs to his apartment located on the top floor of the yeshivah. Suddenly, joyous singing and dancing break out in the procession. This is no Rosh Hashanah tune, nor a poignant song of dveikus. It is a heartfelt rendition of “Zara zara zara zara chaya v’kayama…”

This annual minhag is five years old. Ever since Rav Zvi remarried following the petirah of his first wife, he requests a berachah to have children from everyone he meets — from gedolim such as Rav Moshe Sternbuch to bachurim not even a quarter of his age. He seeks berachos from everyone, because who knows which person’s berachah will break through the Gates of Heaven and bring down the yeshuah?

And so, on the night of Rosh Hashanah, the bachurim took it upon themselves once more to bless their rosh yeshivah with the berachah “Zara di lo yifsok…”

A thought passes through some of our minds: Perhaps after more than five years of marriage, and at the Rosh Yeshivah’s advanced age, the time has come to stop falsely inspiring hope in him. Maybe the Rosh Yeshivah should move on, rather than dwell on the crushed hopes and the anguish! To focus on the gifts he has, rather than be reminded once more of the precious gift that he so deeply yearns for…

But no. Rav Zvi encourages all of us bachurim and passionately joins in the singing. He radiates the steadfast belief that through our tefillos and berachos, his yeshuah will come. That he too will merit “zara di lo yifsok v’di lo yivtol mipisgamei Oraisa.”

Rav Zvi enters his apartment, the singing quiets down, and the bachurim drift away to their various seudos, while I head home to my family. The beis midrash and the yeshivah corridors fall silent once more. Yet the clear realization that Hashem doesn’t run the world based on statistical probabilities continues to ring loudly in my mind.

Yes, Hashem is truly all-powerful. Even when the chances seem very slim, we ought to place our bitachon in Him and daven to Him, because He can bring a yeshuah under any circumstance. I already knew this in theory, but on that special night I deeply experienced and internalized how a true maamin, a true believer, relates to unbounded yeshuas Hashem as a tangible reality.