At a small farbrengen for Yud Tes Kislev in Eretz Yisroel, a community member stood up to share an incredible story.

For several years, he had been arranging a weekly Tanya shiur for the bochurim from Yeshivas Chevron. Every year, he arranged a Yud Tes Kislev farbrengen, and last year, he happened to share with his mother his plans for the upcoming farbrengen.

“I told my mother that I was planning to arrange the farbrengen,” the young man shared. “She asked, ‘Why? What for?’ I don’t come from a Chabad background, and only in recent years have I become close to Chabad. It’s all new for my family, and they want to understand what it’s about.”

“I explained to her that Yud Tes Kislev is the day the Alter Rebbe was released from prison, and the Alter Rebbe promised that whoever participates in his simcha will be taken out min hameitzar el hamerchav – from a place of narrowness and constriction to a place of expansion and freedom.

“My mother was intrigued and asked how she could participate. I suggested that she contribute toward the celebration and also write a letter to the Alter Rebbe asking for what it was that she wished.”

At this point, the bochur telling the story picked up a piece of paper and showed it to the crowd, saying, “This is the letter my mother wrote.” The letter reads:

Erev Yud-Tes Kislev, 5785. To the honorable Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi:

The holy Rebbe promised that whoever participates in my celebration, I will take them out from min hameitzar el hamerchav. With the help of Hashem, Shmuel ben Simcha and Ilana Shira bat Chagit should be blessed with children – healthy and complete children this year. We will publicize the miracle and make a seudah in honor of the holy tzaddik. I will also say a sefer Tehillim in his honor.

Just as the Rebbe went out of prison with great miracles, so too Shmuel and Ilana should go from darkness to light, with healthy children, and there should be many miracles to publicize.

She had written the letter about her daughter and son-in-law, who had been married for ten years without children. “Why my mother wrote ‘children’ and not ‘child,’ I’ll never know,” he concluded, “but nine months later, my sister and brother-in-law gave birth to two beautiful, healthy twins…”

He then called upon his brother-in-law – the father of the miracle children – to address the crowd. He explained that his wife was the only daughter in a family of boys, and her mother had waited for years to see grandchildren from her daughter.

The last ten years had been full of hope, disappointment, struggle, and pain, and throughout it all, her mother had done everything possible for them to be blessed with children.

He shared that they had no knowledge of the letter at the time. That very month, after the letter was written, his wife became pregnant, and they shared the news shortly after with his mother-in-law, though she didn’t mention anything about the letter.

Only a year later, he noticed that she was in an unusually upbeat and joyous mood for Yud Tes Kislev, and when he asked her about it, she took out the letter. “I was shocked; I had not known anything about it before,” he said.

The brother-in-law emphasized the incredible emunah his mother-in-law had in the tzaddikim and their brachos.

“Everyone here should know,” he concluded, “from personal experience, that when you participate in the Alter Rebbe’s simcha, he will take you from min hameitzar el hamerchav – you just need to believe.”

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