The haredi world has been abuzz on Sunday, although not for the obvious reasons of conscription to the IDF or other hot-button issues.

Rather, it is the fact that after decades of waiting, at the ripe age of no less than 88, Rabbi Tzvi Kushelevsky, head of the Heichal Torah Yeshivah in Jerusalem, is now father to a son. The healthy baby was born at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem.

Some in the haredi world have already begun waxing poetic about this being an event that is comparable to Abraham, whom the Bible says was 86 when he became a father to Ishmael.

Kushelevsky was widowed several years ago and remarried in 2018 to his current 56-year-old wife. Their wedding took place in the study hall of his yeshivah, without music and with only 100 people in attendance—just a week after the match was finalized.

After it became clear that the delivery went smoothly and that the head of the yeshivah had become a new father at an exceptionally advanced age, celebrations began there over the good news. The Hamechadesh website documented how the students danced outside the yeshivah building in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem.

The haredi press was especially excited by the news. The Bechadrei Hareidim website wrote that “some will say that since Abraham our forefather, who was blessed with Isaac our forefather at the age of 100, there has not been such a historic birth.”

Originally published by Israel Hayom.