0159 - Bas Techila Siman Yafeh L'banim

00:01 My older brother, Sholom Ber, is a son-in-law of Rabbi Nissan Mindel, the famous Rabbi Nissan Mindel, who was the secretary of the Rebbe, and he used to go in a few times a week to be dictated by the Rebbe the letters that he has to write. So when my brother had his fourth daughter, and he had no boys, so when Rabbi Mindel went in to get the dictation of the letters, the Rebbe wished a mazel tov for his eynikl. So he tells the Rebbe that my daughter, my son-in-law, would like to have a son. They have four girls, but they don't have any boys. So he a- they ask him for a bracha, he should have a son. So the Rebbe says, "The Gemara zokt, 'Bas t'chila siman yofeh l'bonim.'" Which means the Gemara says, bas t'chila means if a daughter is first, siman yofeh, it's a good sign, l'bonim, for the sons. And the Rasha in Gemara explains what it means. So the Rebbe said to him, "If you look at the words, so bas is one word, t'chila is a second word, siman is a third word, yofeh is a fourth. What comes after that? L'bonim. So after the four," he says with a smile, "the four girls, l'bonim, will have a son." And that's exactly what happened. The next child he had was a boy, and he had a few more boys, and then he had girls. So the Rebbe's bracha was mekuyam, but the way the Rebbe put it, based on

01:23 the words bas, t'chila, siman, yofeh, then comes l'bonim.