R. Mordechai ben Hillel was a prominent scholar who lived in Nuremberg, Germany. He authored a famous halachic compendium known as Mordechai, included in all standard printings of the Talmud. R. Mordechai, his wife, and five children were killed in the notorious Rindfleisch massacres (see entry for 7 Iyar), on 22 Menachem Av, 5058 (1298).
Cuddled in her father’s arms, she is snug and secure, because there is a father.
Looking into the small eyes gazing up from within his arms, feeling the tight grasp of a tiny hand on his finger, the father awakens to something he may never have known before: He is a father.
As a child’s trust creates a bond and transforms a man, rendering him a father, so our trust in the One Above elicits His embrace. And there, we are snug and secure.