E xactly one year ago when the calendar page turned to Tu B’Av an article appeared in these very pages titled “The Hidden World of Shidduchim.” That article in today’s vernacular went viral.
That article focused on one of the terrible gezeiros our generation is facing with the proliferation of older singles in our communities. We referred to a famous insight from the Maharsha (Shabbos 10a) explaining that one of the questions we will each be asked upon reaching the Olam Ha’emes “Asakta be’piryah ve’rivyah?” does not mean merely “Did you have children?” but also “Did you attempt to help people with shidduchim?”
In that vein we introduced a “segulah” from the zakein hador the Rosh HaYeshivah Rav Aharon Leib Steinman to help resolve this colossal communal tragedy. Chazal have made clear in numerous places that “One who davens for his fellow Jew for something that he himself needs he will be answered first.” Rav Steinman insightfully notes that when Sarah Imeinu was barren she decided to give her maidservant Hagar to Avraham Avinu stating (Bereishis 16:2): “Ulai ibaneh mimenah — perhaps I will be built from her.” Indeed it was only after she enabled another person to have a child that she herself merited to have her Yitzchak. Rav Steinman suggested that for those who help someone get married which would enable that person to have children it would be a merit to have children of their own.
A year ago my wife and I were searching for something unique and powerful to do as a zechus for the aliyas neshamah of our beloved daughter Sarala z”l whose incomparable and infectious simchas hachayim was needed in Shamayim. Upon hearing about this segulah from Rabbi Shlomo Bochner of Bonei Olam who heard about it from Rav Steinman our search was over. We established an e-mail address (ohelsarala@gmail.com) and invited singles (of all ages) to contact us and be paired with couples affiliated with Bonei Olam who are undergoing costly fertility treatments.
