It was the custom of Rabbi Yitzchak Meir (the Gerer Rebbe, known as the Chidushei HaRim for his famous work by that name) to distribute Chanuka gelt to all of his grandchildren every year. This year was no exception and he summoned his grandchildren to his study where he gave each a sum of money. When they had all received their gifts, the Chidushei HaRim told his grandson Shimon Chaim to call his older brother who had not yet come in to receive his Chanuka gelt. His brother, Yehuda Arye Leib (who later became Rebbe), came at once and stood before his grandfather.

"What would you like me to give you for Chanuka gelt?" the Chidushei HaRim asked the young man.

"What need do I have for money?" he replied.

"Ah, but what you and your wife do need is a child! Your 'Chanuka gelt' shall be that you and your wife will be the parents of a healthy son this year."

Yehuda Leib and his wife had been married for several years and as yet had no children. The Chidushei HaRim perceived the cause of their childlessness in the spiritual realms and he set about making the spiritual corrections which only a tzadik can make. The Chidushei HaRim's blessing soon materialized and Yehuda Leib's wife became pregnant. Her pregnancy, however, progressed with great difficulty. In fact, she became so week that the doctors who were consulted urged that surgery be performed to abort the fetus.

When word of the doctors' prognosis reached the Chidushei HaRim, he was very upset. Why had they consulted doctors, he asked, when he had assured them that they would be the parents of a healthy child. "I have promised them a son, and G-d willing, they will have a son. Has all my work been in vain!?" And he left orders that they go to no more doctors for the doctors could not help them.

Finally the time came and the young woman went into labor. But the hours of labor stretched into days. The midwife insisted that a doctor be called so that both the mother and child not be lost, G-d forbid. The Chidushei HaRim continued to insist that the young woman would be fine and give birth to a healthy son.

By the third day, the midwife had given up hope and was begging that doctors be brought in. The Chidushei HaRim's wife and the mother of the girl ran to the Chidushei HaRim's study weeping and wringing their hands. But the Chidushei HaRim only nodded and replied that he would refuse to begin his morning prayers until the seeming danger had passed and a healthy child was born. A short time later one of his granddaughters ran to him with the good news, "Mazal Tov, Grandfather! She had given birth to a healthy girl!"

He replied, "No, that is not true!"

And it was not true. Soon, someone else entered the room with the information that a mistake had been made and it was a healthy boy. With this news, the Rebbe pronounced a hearty, "Mazal Tov!" and began his morning prayers.

As soon as he finished praying, Reb Yitzchak Meir penned a letter to Reb Yudel, the father of the new mother. "With the help of G-d, your daughter just now gave birth to a boy -- Mazal Tov! -- after several great miracles and acts great kindness by the Almighty, Blessed be He, Who is good, and Who does good."

The circumcision was celebrated in a grand manner and was graced with many guests who delivered stirring and insightful words of Torah. The child was named Avraham Mordechai Alter. He grew up to be a foremost Talmudic scholar whose diligence, alacrity, and purity of speech were legendary. Upon the passing of his father, he became the Gerer Rebbe. He was a gifted organizer who left his stamp on the influential community of Gerer Chasidim, first in Poland, where his followers were numbered in the hundreds of thousands, then in the Holy Land, where he settled in 1940. He was active in establishing schools and youth organizations, as well as in rescue and rehabilition work during and after the Holocaust. He passed away in 1948 and was buried in Jerusalem.