Parents Get Moving Message After Naming Baby From Afar

By COLlive reporter

Rabbi Zalmy and Esther Rader (nee Pinson), Shluchim at Chabad TMR in Montreal, Canada, were blessed with a baby girl and witnessed Hashem’s blessings in midst of the global coronavirus pandemic.

“When my daughter was born on Sunday afternoon, I reached out to our wider family group asking if anyone knows of a legal minyan operating that can give a name to our daughter during kerias hatorah,” he related.

“My aunt in Johannesburg replied immediately that there is an old-age home where everyone is quarantined and they are still doing a minyan.”

Rabbi Rader immediately reached out to the rabbi there and he was happy to do it. “I gave him the information and by 2:00 AM our time, the baby was named. Her name is Tzivia after my wife’s great-grandmother,” he says.

VIDEO: The naming of the Montreal baby in Johanesburg

The Raders were appreciative of the opportunity, but Rabbi Rader comments that “somewhere deep down, I felt a little awkward” that he may not have done the right thing and perhaps should have waited.

The next day, on Monday, Rabbi Rader received a message from Tzivia Grauman, a Lubavitcher who works as the secretary at the old-age home, as well as the Head of Group Communications at The Chevrah Kadisha – Jewish Helping Hands in Johannesburg.

Grauman related that her English name was Ursula and when she started becoming frum in the 70s, she wrote to the Rebbe asking what Hebrew name to take. She mentioned that her name was apparently named after her grandfather Tzvi who was nicknamed Hershele.

In the reply letter dated 22 Elul 5737, the Rebbe wrote with his own handwriting that she should take the name Tzivia (which is a female version of Tzvi).

The Raders were deeply moved by discovery, calling it “a hashgocho protis (and beyond).” Rabbi Rader concluded, “Of all the places in the world to name our daughter, it was in a place where someone was literally named Tzivia by the Rebbe.”