The story making waves is that there was an avreich in Bnei Brak married for 10 years who had not been blessed with children.
The avreich went to Rav Kanievsky regularly for a bracha. Rav Kanievsky would give him his usual "Bracha V'Hatzlacha" and then added, cryptically, that he should check what needs to be checked.
The avreich never understood what he was meant to check, but never had the courage to ask for an explanation.
Finally, the avreich got the courage to ask what needs to be checked and what he should be doing. Rav Kanievsky said what do we check? check the mezuzos.
The avreich sent all the mezuzos in his house to be checked. they all came back fine except for one. The mezuza from the door to the bedroom was passul because the words "v'shinantam l'vanecha" (you should teach your children) ran together with no space between the words.
He switched the mezuza for a kosher mezuza, and went back to Rav Kanievsky to tell him what happened. Rav Chaim gave him a new energetic "bracha v'hatzlacha"... (source: Haredim)
we don't know if he got his wife pregnant immediately or not, but we wish him well and hope he has kids aplenty now that the mezuza problem has been solved.
Note that you cannot just go to a gadol and expect everything to be solved. the guy didn't understand what Rav Kanievsky was telling him, didn't ask for an explanation, and didn't get his problem resolved. Going to a gadol isn't enough - you gotta get the picture straight, you have to understand what he tells you to do.
ohhh please,
ReplyDeleteThese stories have been around for decades, or longer - including the pasul words in the bedroom Mezuza. The only detail that changes is the name of the Rabbi handing out the Brachot.
If people take these stories seriously, good luck to them
How come the Avreich went 10 years without ever checking His Mezuzas? Shouldn't we all regularly check our Mezuzot, irrespective of whether we hjave children.
We need a jopes.com (snopes.com for Jewish issues).
ReplyDeleteMichael - Shouldn't we all regularly check our Mezuzot
Not too regularly :-) because the act of unrolling the klaf often destroys the letters rendering it passul!
Mark
So let me understand this: You actually believe that Hashem is so arbitrary, that after you lead a good life doing everything to the best of your ability, an unseen and unknown defect in your mezuza could cause this type of problem?
ReplyDeleteIf you believe this, you're making Hashem into a vending machine: Insert proper mezuza, have kids.
This type of story is not a good way to understand Judaism. It's what is leading more and more Jews into buying kameos & traveling to Eastern-European graves, while thinking it's okay to lie to the government for financial benefits and defraud others. It is NOT going to promote emunah or Halachic behavior.
Yossi Ginzberg
Rafi,
ReplyDeleteThe message of this post was excellent. I had a similar issue w/ R Dovid Pinto. I had to get an explaination from him regarding something he said. Asking makes all the difference.
I think the halacha is to check your mezuzot every 7 years. And Mark is correct - those who do it every Yamim Noraim because of these stories inevitably find more to fix.
ReplyDeleteBut I heard something about that even after 7 years one can assume a chazakah and still not check the mezuzuot.
You have to check twice in seven years. Tefillin that are used on a regular basis have a chazakah, not Mezuzah because Tefillin are used while the Mezuzah "just sits there."
ReplyDeleteAnother example of how Judaism has become a religion of segulahs and superstition. We need gedolim like Rambam, not these kabbalistically inclined rabbis with their gullible followers...
ReplyDelete