The Dance and the Promise

It is told that on Simchas Torah the talmidim of the Baal Shem Tov danced in circles of holy fire, and the Shechinah seemed to rest on them. In the midst of that joy, Adel, the Baal Shem Tov's pious daughter, noticed one talmid standing by himself at the side, longing to dance but unable to. He was Rav Duvid Leikes, the Rav of Bar.

She asked him why he was not dancing. In answer he pointed at his feet. His old shoes had given out in the dancing, and the leather ties had torn, so he could not join the rest of the chevraya kadisha.

Adel told him not to worry. She would give him a new pair of shoes, on condition that he bless her with a baby boy, which she had not yet merited. Rav Duvid grew serious and concentrated deeply, and then he nodded and promised that by the next year she would have a son.

A year later their eldest child was born, and Rav Yechiel and Adel named their son Moshe Chaim Ephraim.