Mrs. Dubkin gives a weekly parasha session based on the Rebbe’s teachings for women in a settlement in the north of Eretz Yisroel. At the end of each session, Mrs. Dubkin passes around a paper for the participants to sign so that she can later insert the paper in a volume of Igros Kodesh as a "duch" (acronym for "din v’cheshbon" - i.e., a progress report) to the Rebbe shlita.

Esther, a resident of the settlement and a regular participant in the session, added a personal request next to her name. She was in the final months of her pregnancy and asked for a blessing for an easy birth.

The session was over, and Mrs. Dubkin took the paper home to Kiryat Chabad in Tzfas. She put it in a volume of Igros Kodesh thinking that later on she would read the answer in order to be able to tell the ladies a message from the Rebbe shlita.

The next day when Esther went shopping with her sister, for no apparent reason, a thought came to her. She said to herself, "Here you are in Tzfas, not far from the ’Rivka Ziv’ hospital - go get an examination."

She was surprised by the thought, as she had no real reason to go to the hospital. She felt fine and had no pain. Why should she be examined?

But the thought kept buzzing around her head like a force from within, getting stronger and stronger all the time. She wasn’t able to concentrate on her shopping anyway, so she shared her strange feeling with her sister.

"I think I will go to the hospital, at least to calm down and reassure myself that all is well," she said. And she went straight from the market to the hospital.

In the course of the examination, the doctor noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with the baby - its heartbeat was weakening.

"Get Esther ready for a C-section," said the doctor to the nurses, who immediately began preparations. Esther found it hard to digest what was happening. At first she thought of asking the doctor to wait, but when she heard that the heartbeat was nearly zero, she decided to go along with his decision. Within moments she was in the operating room.

When it was all over and she was in the recovery room, and had learned that she had had a healthy daughter, she heard about the miracle from the nurses. They told her how serious the situation was and how they had to resuscitate the baby. It seems the umbilical cord had been wrapped around the baby’s neck. "Luckily you came at the last possible moment, and we could still save the baby."

Mrs. Dubkin visited the new mother, who told her the events surrounding the birth. "By the way, did you notice that I had asked the Rebbe shlita for a blessing for the birth?

Did you read the Rebbe’s answer yet?"

"Not yet," said Mrs. Dubkin, "but I’ll look at it first thing when I get home." When she opened Volume Six to page 161, she read the following:

May G-d complete her pregnancy properly and easily, and surely she heeds the orders of the doctor who examines her from time to time, as is the local custom. And the birth should be in the right time and easily ... and may you derive much Jewish nachas, etc...