Naming My Daughter

At the time, I lived in Borough Park and davened in the Lakewood Minyin on 16th Avenue. Shabbos morning,  I informed the Gabbi Rabbi Kushner about the Simcha and asked him to please give me an Aliyah. The פרשה being read that week was וילך in חומש דברים. Customarily, a person who is making a simcha, or is giving a newborn a name, is called up to the third or sixth Torah portion being read, שלישי or ששי. For some unknown reason, the Gabbi chose to call me up for חמישי, the fifth portion.

After the Aliyah, the מי שברך for naming a baby was recited by the Gabbi, at which time I named my daughter, אסתר גרינא.

Shortly thereafter, a gentleman approached me and asked,

“Do you realize the significance of the specific Aliya you were given? You named your daughter Esther and the Talmud asks, אסתר מין התורה מנין?

Where is Esther hinted to in the Torah and answers,  שנאמר  “ואנכי הסתר אסתיר פני”.

It happens to be, the Gabbi gave you the Aliyah where Esther’s name is alluded to”. Unbelievable. He didn’t even know beforehand, what name I was going to give.Think its a coincidence? No way. Truth be told, Hashem knew what name I was going to give. He inspired the Gabbi to specifically call me up for חמישי, in order to sync the name, with the Aliyah I received.

If that was not enough, after מוסף another gentleman approached me and said. “Its not by coincidence that you added a second name גרינא”. He went on to explain, that the Talmud in מסכת מגילה looks for the best way to describe Esther and says, “אסתר יראקרקות היתה” “Esther was a גרינא”, as translated into Yiddish. Since it was an uncommon name, we were unsure if to add it as a second name or not. At the end, it was added to perpetuate the memory of my aunt, who was murdered  in the Holocust, during the Nazi invasion of Poland. By being introduced to this גמרה, it became clear, that adding this second name was ordained by Hashem. The two names given to my daughter that Shabbos, אסתר גרינא matched perfectly.

Those two gentleman who came over to wish Mazel Tov and share their knowledge, made all the difference. It now was clear that conception of this name and when it was given, came from a higher realm.

The story doesn’t end there.  Twenty years later my oldest daughter wound up marrying the youngest son of Rabbi Kushner the Gabbi, who gave his future daughter in law her name twenty years earlier. Sometimes we say, Hashem has a sense of humor. Its true. What aliyah I received then, what name I gave my daughter, the Gabbi who gave the name, was all part of Hashem’s master plan. Many times we experience events but only understand them later on.

Looking back, we come to understand how all the peices of the puzzle fit perfectly. Simply said, Hashem runs His world perfectly, to the finest detail. Let us not for one moment think, that we are an insignificant detail in Hashem’s master plan. We may be a detail, but a very important one to Hashem.