"Mom, why am I called Samuel?" The boy asked the question one day during the evening meal. Nervously she toyed with her dinner napkin. She hadn't dared tell anyone for fear that they would think her foolish. After all, she lives in the modern world, not the world populated by Old Testament characters. All of her friends knew that for years she had tried everything possible in order to be able to have children.

First there were the specialists who insisted on taking all sorts of tests, making all sorts of observations, and trying to figure out what the biological impediment was. Then there were the endless sessions with counselors trying to find out whether or not there were emotional blocks. Other counselors had indicated that perhaps her concerns about her husband were interfering with c…