For 25 years they made sure hospital patients, staff and family had prayer services and Shabbat and holiday food. Sima and Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz had been trying to get pregnant for 27 years. This week, their first child, a girl—was born at Hadassah Ein Kerem. Said Prof. Zeev Rotstein, “In every department of the hospital, we are rejoicing with you. You have chosen to carry Jewish law to its fruition, the vision of giving and kindness to all.”
Sima Peretz, 49, is a seventh grade teacher in the Beit Yaakov schools. She married Yitzhak Peretz 27 years ago. They wanted children right away. But year after year went by and as their siblings and neighbors built families, Sima and Yitzhak remained childless. Sima devoted her weekdays to her students, and on Shabbat and holidays, she and Yitzhak, who became a Rabbi, provided food (facilitated through an anonymous organization) for the families of those who were at the hospital with their sick loved-ones.
For a quarter of a century, Yitzhak conducted beautiful services in the light of the Chagall Windows of the Abbell synagogue at Hadassah Ein Kerem.
And then the miracle happened. This week, Sima gave birth to a daughter, beautiful and dark-haired like her mother.
Sima said ”I want to thank the women and men of Hadassah who have provided me with a second home all these years and who brought the medicine that helped me become a mother”. “Never give up,” she said. “Keep up your work which has been helping so many, people just like me.”
“I believe in God and I prayed for a child, however God doesn’t work in a vacuum but enlists human endeavor to bring about miracles. Hadassah’s specialists in fertility and obstetrics never gave up on me”.
Rabbi Peretz asked to thank in particular, Hadassah’s fertility expert Professor Neri Laufer, and Dr. Shlomi Yahalomi, “who was ready to answer any question at any time day or night.”
See http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/220686
Photo:
Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz is congratulated by Prof. Zeev Rotstein, Director of Hadassah Medical Center