Chanukah 5770/2009 - Jewish Infertility

SHAAREI TIKVAH/ CHANUKAH 2009
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My non-religious doctor looked me straight in the eye
and uttered a single word: “Pray.”
two eggs.” The ultrasound doctor consented.
When Dr. C. performed the extraction the next day, she
found only one egg.
My chances of success slid from 2.5% to zilch.
Since I was already on the operating table, Dr. C. humored
me. She extracted and fertilized the single egg. Two days
later, as she reinserted it, my non-religious doctor looked me
straight in the eye and uttered a single word: “Pray.” I prayed
and cried and made a vow to God. Two weeks later, I got a
positive pregnancy test.
The next day I saw Dr. C. in the clinic. I was jubilant. She
was skeptical. Ever the meticulous scientist, she knew that a
woman can’t get pregnant with IVF using only one egg. “I’ll
believe you’re pregnant,” she told me, “when I see an ultrasound
with a heartbeat.”
Three weeks later I ecstatically waved in front of her an
ultrasound with a heartbeat.
At the end of nine months, at the age of 46, I gave birth
to a healthy baby boy, may he live and be well, b’li ayin hara.
Experts And Predictions
Ever since Sept. 11, my email has been full of predictions
by experts regarding every possible aspect of war, bio-terror,
and chemical warfare:
How many Americans would die in a smallpox epidemic
launched by bio-terrorists.
What percentage of Israelis would survive if Saddam Hussein
hit us with chemical warheads loaded with VX, an advanced
chemical agent?
Why it is impossible to win a war in the rough terrain of
Afghanistan – this before America’s allies ousted the Taliban.
All of these predictions, however, leave out one factor,
which is the most crucial factor: God runs the world. Any
equation which does not take into account the God factor
is bound to come up with the wrong conclusion.
In 1967, as Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser was proclaiming
the imminent destruction of the State of Israel, both political
pundits and military strategists predicted Israel’s defeat. The
figures were formidable. The 19-year-old state was up
against the impending combined attack of Egypt, Syria, Jordan,
and Iraq. The four Arab armies together boasted 810
airplanes against Israel’s 350; 2,880 tanks against Israel’s 800;
and 465,000 troops against Israel’s 265,000. So convinced
were the Israelis themselves of an inevitable blood bath that
the Rabbinate officially designated all of Jerusalem’s parks as
cemeteries.
Apparently, God had a different idea. Instead of defeat,
Israel experienced a surprise victory. In just six days, Israel
not only pushed back the Arab forces, but recaptured all of
the major Jewish holy sites, including the Temple Mount, the
Western Wall, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, and the
Tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem. The experts were left stammering.
My cousin Phil is a retired corporate executive, a
highly intelligent, savvy pragmatist who keeps himself wellinformed
and draws clear-headed conclusions from the facts.
In the 1980s, he predicted that the State of Israel would cease
to exist by the year 2013. At first, this doomsday forecast
was based on the demographic threat: the Arab birthrate on
both sides of the Green Line was staggeringly greater than
the Jewish birthrate. The numbers were incontestable; by
2013 the Jewish state would have a majority of Arab inhabitants.
Barring the God factor, that is. In the Torah God clearly
states His intention to bring the Jews back to Israel from the
far corners of the earth. In 1990, the Soviet Union collapsed,