I was attending an insurance conference in Jerusalem in the winter of 1985 when my oldest daughter Malca called me. She was at the time in her fifth month of pregnancy with her third child and she was crying.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her, “Why are you crying?” Malca had just come from a check-up at her obstetrician who had done an ultrasound. The doctor said the baby had water on the brain and was recommending she abort the pregnancy. My daughter was beside herself.
I told her not to do anything or say anything and I immediately called Rabbi Gerlitzky, the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s shaliach in Tel Aviv and a dear friend of the family. I told him the story.
“I’m going to tell the Rebbe what you told me,” he said, “and ask for an eitza and a bracha.”
We waited tensely. In the meantime Malca continued crying and went off food.
The next day Rabbi Gerlitzky called us and told us not to do anything. The Rebbe said everything was going to be okay. Malca said, “Baruch Hashem!” stopped crying and started eating again.
At the next visit to her obstetrician, a week later, he asked her what she had decided. She told him the Rebbe told her not to do anything that everything was going to be okay. The doctor was befuddled, faced with her confidence and calm in light of the Tzaddik’s promise. He decided to send her for another ultrasound at another specialist. The second ultrasound came back normal.
Three months later, on my wife’s birthday, Malca gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl who they named Shira.
Today Shira has three children of her own, ken yirbu. When Shira was in school, she studied to become a specialist in medical electronics and learned how to read and interpret ultrasounds.