So – I became a grandfather again. My daughter Rivkie gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last Motzoei Shabbos. He is the little guy in the photo. The rest of the people are his siblings (L-R) Shimon, Meira, Mordechai, and Noam. The Bris is tomorrow - Sunday morning March 21st - and of course the baby will be named at that time. For the time being, we are calling him Earl. I will report back after the Bris when I find out his new name. Stay tuned.Update (3/21/10 - 12:01 PM CDT)
Just got back from the Bris and my new grandson's name is Daniel Yaakov. He was named after two people spanning two millenia in time. The first is the great biblical figure Daniel Ish Chamudos about whom Chazal indicate has the personal quailties of Moshiach (Sanhedrin 98b). The other is Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky, famed Rosh HaYeshiva of Torah VoDaath and one of my personal heroes - which should not be a surprise to anyone who reads my blog regularly.
If emulating the qualities of two great Torah persoanlties was their goal my daughter and son in law could not have made a better choice than these two figures.
Daniel's great piety, his knowldge of the culture of his times, his survival in the lion's den, and intepretation of the 'handwriting on the wall' for Belshazzar (which led him to a position of Bablonian leadership - ranking 3rd highest from the king) are well known and need no embellishment from me.
Rav Yaakov is known not only for his vast knowledge of Torah and great piety, he is known for great character as well. His kind and respectful treatment of others regardless of their level of religiosity - or regardless of their relgion- is legendary. My Bracha to Daniel Yaakov is that he always look to these great Torah perosnalities as role models but even more importantly to his own parents who themselves live those values.
