A woman who understands her real power…
In the midst of diapers and dishes, sometimes it helps to gaze into the future and remember that these little people are men and women you’re raising–a heritage from the Lord.
“The commandment to “be fruitful and multiply” the Krishevsky family follows quite closely.
Rachel Krishevsky got married to her cousin, Yitzhak, just before turning 19. The couple brought seven sons and four daughters into the world. In accordance with haredi custom, Krishevsky brought up her children to see children as a great joy. Her children subsequently adopted her outlook and produced 150 children of their own.
These 150 children continued the commitment to be fruitful and multiply and themselves had no less than 1,000 children. From here, the lineage continued even further, and Rachel Krishevsky was blessed with a few hundred great-great-grandchildren.
Rachel Krishevsky died at age 99 on Saturday surrounded by loving descendants.”
One of her grandchildren said about her:
“Grandma was a God-fearing woman her whole life, and her door was always open to the homeless and poor near the market who were looking for a place to eat,” added the grandchild.
“She knew the entire book of Psalms…”
(From y-net news)
30 comments
WOW, I am in awe. What a beautiful story.
Wow! That is awesome!
It doesn’t take very long to multiply, indeed!
I love this! 150 grandchildren…WOW!
Wow!
Thanks for posting this, Kelly!
Very inspiring.
That is such a great story. Very encouraging and inspiring.
I knew I liked girls named Rach(a)el….such a beautiful heritage.
I was careless with my own fertility. I will pray, and challenge my own daughters to see theirs differently – as a gift, not another “management” issue.
I saw that story and loved it. 🙂 What a blessed woman.
Wow, thanks for posting that. We have 5 children so far, and, Lord willing, will have many more. But, it’s amazing to think that if just these 5 children had just 5 children who had just 5 children, that there’d be 25 grandchildren and 125 great-grandchildren, compared to the norm of 4 and 8.
Oh, I love this!!! It’s my dream! One day with the kids we played out the ‘if you each have nine children and your children have nine children. . .’ on and on we went, it was so neat to see their eyes. The vast army of men and women serving the Lord, (by His grace!!!) was astounding. Talk about making disciples!
Thanks for sharing.
Do you support the idea of people marrying cousins?
Ashley, seriously? This post clearly has a different vein: showing how influential for the kingdom of God two people can be if they trust in the Lord with all their might and lean not on their own understanding. It wasn’t, I’m sure, an advocacy for marrying practices.
You may be interested in these thoughts on Haredi women:
http://ccostello.blogspot.com/2008/01/women-supporting-their-husbands.html
“This post clearly has a different vein: showing how influential for the kingdom of God two people can be if they trust in the Lord with all their might and lean not on their own understanding.”
Umm no. They are Jewish, so that isn’t the same religion as you. You beleive that this woman is going to hell when she died because she wasn’t Christian.
This post is about children and marriage- the same as most posts here. So I’m asking if you support the part where she married her cousin.
Do you think they were victims of a sickness in society or that their marriage is morally okay?
Ashley, let’s consider, first, that this woman married many, many years ago…before the laws against cousins marrying, most likely. No one here is supporting (or denouncing) her choice of husband. However, this might interest you. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2564/whats-wrong-with-cousins-marrying
I am the oldest of seven children (my mom became pregnant 6 times on 4 different forms of birth control- it is indeed the Lord who opens and closes the womb!). Five of us now have children, so my parents have eight grandchildren… with many more to come!
Ashley,
Didn’t post the article, as Kelly said, to advocate marrying cousins. I don’t think it’s a good idea to marry close cousins, though in biblical times I think it was customary to marry distant cousins, so no debating about it because I don’t know enough to discuss it, nor do I care to. 😉
Allie,
To be honest, I’m not really interested in “haredi” women and didn’t post the article as any support or promotion of their religion. Perhaps I should have added a qualifier…
I have hailed actions of many people with whom I may disagree on other things–I don’t know that you were saying I shouldn’t have posted because of that, but just wanted to make that clear.
Oh my! I can’t help laughing at some of the comments! Seems like someone always wants to turn the posts into arguements about something totally unrelated. Sorry if it upsets anyone for me to say that…I just think it’s really funny! Kelly, I think you must be saying that everyone needs to marry their cousins AND do so before the age of 19. Right???
All joking aside, I think this is such a beautiful example of how God can use a couple who has given Him control of their fertility. Wonderful!
Nah, I just think the haredi have an interesting thing going on. If she was supporting her husband while he studying Torah when she had eleven children I feel rather bad for her!
Gosh you’d think marriage to a cousin was like marriage to a sibling (mich law 2002 allows marriage to first cousins as genetists prove there is no greater risks than the general population if they both appear healthy.) She sure sounded like a wonderful Lady to me! Glad you wrote about her .Sad to think someone would think I hate Jews because I am a Christian or that I thought they were going to hell, I think Ashley has had the bad experiance of knowing some of those really awful “Christians” . I used to know them too.
Kelly, you can’t win for losing can you? 😉
I agree with Charity! How encouraging – we are just about to do a family tree in our studies, this will be a great addition to show them the impact of a “small” start.
Ashley,
Since you asked: I did not, nor would I hope my daughter would marry a cousin. That is because we grew up in a country where that is (for the most part) socially frowned upon (if not more). Just as I do not judge those marriages 150 years ago where girls got married at 14 due to life expectancy, nor do I judge those of a different ethnic/culture/religious background that believe marriage to cousins is OK and a social norm.
And regardless of these people’s faith, whether they died rejecting Christ Jesus or not, anytime someone trusts in the Lord and allows Him to be in control of their lives, it brings Glory and Honor to the One who made us to thrive in this way.
Wow, awesome!!!
I have been thinking a lot about the impact that having a large family can have on future generations.
By the way, I think the point of your post was pretty clear. Have children; impact the future.
How about some wise, grace-inspired words of wisdom from a Mom of 7 (not on this topic, but just on being a Mom and knowing God):
http://resolved2worship.xanga.com/
Go visit. You will be glad you did:-)
Amy Jo,
A.Ann (at resolved2worship)is a friend of ours…actually her husband’s family were the neighbors of ours that had such an impact on me growing up. I love them dearly.
Michelle,
Amazing, isn’t it?
Wow! Small world! I have been so blessed recently by discovering her “site.” Sorry to throw a *promotion* into your comment thread, but I thought with all of the tit-for-tat about marrying cousins (????) it may be a good time for a distraction:-)
I cannot believe some of the comments. And assumptions. And critical spirits.
Do some people some here just to be sure to keep Kelly “in her place”? Make sure to pour cold water over her joy? Yeesh.
btw, I did read Anna’s post about haredi women. And I thought it was interesting, and sad.
However, where is the assumption that this woman’s husband was a Torah scholar and she was a miserable slave coming from? Is it because she was Jewish in Jerusalem? Not all Jewish families live that way. Even Orthodox families.