Sitting alone today listening to Hurricane Sandy's wind and rain I figure it is time for a spooky story. I am not usually into stories like this, but this one was told by Rav Moshe Feinstein who was not usually the spooky kind of person. That makes the story more real to me. It also relates to this week's Parsha.
In the Bellorussian town where R' Moshe was Rov, Luban, a few days after the reading of Parshas Vayera a member of the community became very ill. Among his symptoms he had a badly swollen tongue. Rav Moshe went to visit him and when he entered the sick person asked the family members who were gathered, about him to leave the room as he wished to speak to the Rov privately.
"I know why I am sick," he began. "This past Shabbos in Shul I spoke very disparagingly of the Daughters of Lot.They had not only seduced their father, but were shameless enough to then publicize the fact through the names they gave their sons. I had a few choice names for them myself.
"That night I had a dream in which two very old women appeared to me and identified themselves as the Daughters of Lot. They informed me that they had heard that I had criticized them. They had been given permission to come to me and explain why they had chosen to publicize their reasons for choosing these names for their sons rather than hiding their incestuous behavior.
"When we emerged alive and pregnant as the sole survivors from the Sodom Apocalypse we could have easily claimed that our pregnancies were miraculous. Someone else got way with such a claim one thousand years later. And who would not have believed us? Our very survival was a miracle, perhaps our pregnancies were as well!
"We chose instead to publicize our shame for all time in order to establish the principle that where there is a child there is always a father, a human father, in the hopes that no one would ever get away with claiming Divine Conception. And because you demeaned us with your words you will receive the same punishment as the Meraglim (spies) who spoke ill about God and the Land of Israel. Their tongues grew, and so will yours."
The man then turned his head to the wall and breathed his last breath.
In the Bellorussian town where R' Moshe was Rov, Luban, a few days after the reading of Parshas Vayera a member of the community became very ill. Among his symptoms he had a badly swollen tongue. Rav Moshe went to visit him and when he entered the sick person asked the family members who were gathered, about him to leave the room as he wished to speak to the Rov privately.
"That night I had a dream in which two very old women appeared to me and identified themselves as the Daughters of Lot. They informed me that they had heard that I had criticized them. They had been given permission to come to me and explain why they had chosen to publicize their reasons for choosing these names for their sons rather than hiding their incestuous behavior.
"When we emerged alive and pregnant as the sole survivors from the Sodom Apocalypse we could have easily claimed that our pregnancies were miraculous. Someone else got way with such a claim one thousand years later. And who would not have believed us? Our very survival was a miracle, perhaps our pregnancies were as well!"We chose instead to publicize our shame for all time in order to establish the principle that where there is a child there is always a father, a human father, in the hopes that no one would ever get away with claiming Divine Conception. And because you demeaned us with your words you will receive the same punishment as the Meraglim (spies) who spoke ill about God and the Land of Israel. Their tongues grew, and so will yours."
The man then turned his head to the wall and breathed his last breath.
No comments:
Post a Comment