Quadruplets Born to Chabad Family in Los Angeles

By Yaakov Ort – Chabad.org

When Sara and Yisroel Gutovich of Los Angeles were married five years ago, their greatest shared hope was to raise a large Jewish family, even though they were getting a later-in-life start than most newlyweds. They were delighted when their oldest son was born a year after the wedding.

But then, Sara had difficulty conceiving, and on the advice of their physicians and after consulting with rabbis who are experts in Jewish law, Sara began to undergo a round of costly and painful fertility treatments, which did not prove to be successful. Undeterred, she began a second round of treatments, but the day before the final treatment, Sara was diagnosed with Covid-19 and her doctor advised her not to continue at that time.

Not giving up hope, the couple sought a more spiritual solution. Sarah began taking advanced classes in the Jewish laws of family purity and the couple decided to become even more particular in their observance.

The couple had been close to Rabbi Boruch and Channa Hecht of Chabad of Brentwood, Cal., since before they were married, with Rabbi Hecht officiating at their wedding. The Hechts supported the couple throughout their ordeal, sharing with them the teachings and private correspondence of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, on emunah and bitachon, faith and trust in G‑d.

Every year for her birthday, Channa Hecht hosts an event called Spa for the Soul at the local Chabad mikvah, attended by hundreds of women, where she accepts letters from community members requesting blessings from on high that she takes with her when she flies on the day after her birthday to the Ohel, the resting place of the Rebbe in Queens, N.Y.

A Special Request
In addition to a letter asking for a blessing for more children, Sara asked Channa Hecht if she could see if she could somehow obtain a coin that the Rebbe had given to a child. The Rebbe had frequently given out coins to children, which were saved by the child and replaced with one of the child’s own coins and given to charity. Sara Gutovich hoped the coin would provide an additional blessing for more children.

The next day, after delivering the letters at the Ohel, Hecht asked a friend in Crown Heights if she knew where she could obtain such a coin, and was shocked to hear that the woman had one in her possession and was happy to give it away for the sake of a mitzvah. Hecht brought the coin to Gutovich, who made it into a necklace and began to wear it every day.

Short-Lived Good News
A month later, an ultrasound examination showed that Sara was carrying four babies, but her joy was short-lived. Her doctors advised her that pregnancies with multiple babies had a very high risk for mothers her age, and insisted that they would treat her only if she would abort two of the fetuses.

“I was horrified, saddened and confused,” said Sara. “I wanted all of my children. I couldn’t imagine that now that I had a chance to have four more children, I might lose two of them.”

After consulting other physicians who said that carrying all four babies was a risk, but not as much of a risk as the first doctors had advised, the Gutoviches asked rabbis who were experts in Jewish law if they were allowed to decide to take the risk and trust in G‑d. that everything would be okay, and they said that under the circumstances they should go ahead. “But I was getting different advice wherever I turned,” said Sara Gutovich.

That week, Channa Hecht’s father, Rabbi Shlomo Cunin, director of Chabad-Lubavitch on the West Coast was in New York to visit the Ohel as he does every month. He called Sara Gutovitch from the Ohel and said that he prayed for her at the Rebbe’s resting place and he was confident that everything would be okay.

“Rabbi Cunin lives on a different plane of existence. Everything he says is with such certainty and with so much conviction, that I just knew it would be okay,” said Gutovich. “From then on, I decided we would change the tune and continue with the story of bitachon.”

Over the following months, the pregnancy proceeded without complication and four healthy babies were born last week, two boys and two girls, each weighing over four pounds. The family is now at home in Los Angles.

“This birth was a huge gift from G‑d,” said Yisrael Gutovitch. “It is truly in the merit of the nashim tzidkonios, (righteous women) and the tremendous bitachon that Sara had, that we merited to have quadruplets.”