CoverStory: "The Sacred Role Of Nursing Mothers

Lynne Schreiber
AUGUST 08, 2003


One Yom Kippur eve long ago in the city of Berditchev in what's now Ukraine, a congregation awaited the arrival of Rav Levi Yitzchak. As the hour grew late, they held up Kol Nidrei for the rabbi's arrival.




They didn't know that the rabbi was in a small hut, rocking and soothing a crying baby. He had been passing by on his way to shul when he heard the infant's loud wails. The door was locked, so the rabbi climbed in the window. 'The mother is unaware that tending to a baby takes precedence over davening, even on Yom Kippur,' the rabbi reasoned."