By COLlive reporter
Mendel Liberow, a bochur at Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim in Brunoy, France, relates the following story he experienced on a recent Friday while doing Mivtzoim at the Pletzl, the Jewish quarter in Paris:
A person came over to our weekly Tefillin stand and started showing us photos on his phone. They were of him and the Rebbe. We were immediately intrigued and asked him to share with us details.
He said he would be happy to tell us a miracle from the Rebbe that personally happened with him.
Around 30 years ago he got married and decided to go with his newly wedded spouse to visit the Rebbe and ask for a blessing. A week later he found himself on line outside 770 Eastern Parkway.
As the line became shorter, he noticed the people only got a few moments with the Rebbe. He resolved that he will only make a single request for a blessing: To be blessed with child.
Soon enough, standing in front of the Rebbe, the young man asked the Rebbe for his blessings to raise a family. The Rebbe’s reply was uncommonly short and cryptic.
“Tizkeh L’odom – תזכה לאדם,” the Rebbe replied, and with that their encounter ended, leaving the man with a dollar for charity and deeply puzzled.
The man approached chassidim asking them for an explanation to the Rebbe’s words without a satisfactory interpretation. Even the Rebbe’s mazkir Rabbi Leibel Groner raised his hands in doubt.
A year later, the couple welcomed a healthy baby boy.
The father wanted to name the boy Maimon after his late father and Aryeh after the holy and most famous Kabbalist, the Ari Hakadosh OBM.
His wife, on the other hand, wanted the boy to be named Dovid because of the close affinity she felt towards Dovid Hamelech as she had been saying chapters of Tehillim on every occasion.
As a compromise, the couple agreed upon the names Aryeh Dovid Maimon. It was only then, after the bris milah ceremony, that they noticed the acronym of the name they had given – Adam (אדם).
They finally understood the Rebbe’s blessings that they will merit for a boy named Adam.
So they did not actually call him Adom, right? Just the acronym of his names spells Adom. But was he at least called Adom as a nick name? And why would they choose such an order for the names?
Arye Dovid Maimon
Adam Dovid Maimon
So is the boys name Arye Dovid or Adam Dovid?