What are the chances of this story being true?
An Orthodox Jew from New Jersey was involved in a car accident and accidently killed an old non-Jewish man. Although the courts found the Jewish man not guilty, he could not carry the the pains of the guilt that he killed an old man. It gave him no peace and it caused him to lose his appetite and was unable to sleep for weeks.
He decided to seek counsel from the revered sage, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky Shlita of Bnei Brak, and wrote him a letter asking the Rav what tikun can he do because he accidently killed a non-Jew.
The Rav wrote him an answer that included one word, "Amalek".
The Jew did not understand this answer and continued suffering with sleepless nights. At some point he decided to move away from his town to begin a new life. He began searching for a new house and found a house that appealed to him. The owners of the apartment told him that they are eager to get rid of this house because they inherited from their dead father that was killed in a car accident.
After short investigation, turns out the apartment belonged to the non-Jew who was accidentaly killed by the Jew. In the basement of the house, the Orthodox Jew found materials belonging to the old non-Jew man. He was shocked to find a picture of the old man during his youth proudly wearing an SS uniform, standing next to Hitler, yimach shemo.
It turned out that this old man was an SS officer in the Nazi army and after the war, he came to the United States and hid his past. The SS Nazi Officer also kept other documents, including all the names of the Jews he personally murdered.
When he read the names of the Jewish people that were murdered, he found both of his parent's name on this list.
HaShem avenged their blood.
It was then that he understood Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky Shlita's answer that contained one word, "AMALEK".
Why you should be skeptical:
- It looks like this was printed in a frum newspaper. That should already be enough.
- The story is not even brought as an item by itself, just as an anecdote.
- No names and real details are mentioned.
I imagine that the frum readers will learn from this (besides the obvious emunas chachomim propaganda) is a confirmation of their beliefs that all non-Jews are out there to get us.
Not they "might be:" the story implies that if you kill someone accidentally, it MUST BE that they deserved it.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's possible the story is true, it would be a huge coincidence and there are too many things that don't make sense.
Wow. For a concocted story, it isn't even very well-constructed, ignoring an obvious gaping plot hole: the guy just happened to buy the old man's house unknowingly? This would have to mean that (a) the guy never learned the name of the former owner when buying it (despite buying it from his children and hearing the unusual story of his death), and (b) the guy never met the children of the victim during the entire court process. Really?
ReplyDeleteHilarious - this story was printed in the weekend magazine to the Hamodia in English. Some of the details are changed here. It wasn't true in the Hamodia's version and it is even less true in this version (hmmm....can a fabricated story get less true?). In any case, truth means nothing in the Orthodox community...this is yet another reason for you to remove the undercover from the kofer part of your name.
ReplyDeleteMenashe: Thanks, you are sharp as a razor :)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Im yirtzeh hashem bald bei mir ;)