My Grandchild's Birth - a Miracle or Unusual Turn of Events?

I am happy to announce that my seventh grandchild began her life's journey this past Wednesday morning in the Holy city of Tzfat (Safed).

My wife and I with our latest tribesman  (no name yet)

Her debut appearance as a human being raised a question: was her birth a medical miracle or just unusual -  but nothing more?

This is what transpired: My daughter-in-law went to the hospital for a check up on Monday night. The doctors informed her and my son Yehuda that the baby had flipped into a legs-first position leaving no choice but to operate.  It's rare for a baby to flip in the 9th month (she was two weeks into the 10th) because there's no room. The couple was devastated because they badly wanted a natural birth, and in previous checkups, all was well.

The young Gordons went to their home in Tzfat (Safed). The mother wept and my son recalled that the saintly 19th-century Hassidic Master Rabbi Nachman of Breslov said that someone who reads his book Shmot HaTzaddikim will have the strength to "flip nature" (lehapech et hateva). This book is nothing more than a listing of all the righteous people who lived from the time of Adam until the time of the Talmud. So my son got a hold of the book and started reciting the thousands of names.

The book: Shmot HaTzaddikim [The Names of the Righteous]

As though waking them into action by uttering their name, my son read aloud flipping page after page, until he dozed off.

The next morning, they went for a checkup and behold, the baby flipped back into head-first position.

All of the doctors were astounded. "We've never seen anything like this. Babies don't flip at the end of a pregnancy," they said.

Labor was induced, and young Ms. Gordon soon was out and about.

Calling all skeptics - was this not a miracle? Say it ain't so!

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