ברכות-ט

When a certain רב was lying in his sickbed, his wife would not let any visitors see him.  When רבי אייזל חריף came to visit, she told him that the doctors said her husband needed to rest, so she could not let him in.  רבי אייזל wrote a note and asked the woman to give it to her husband.  She did as he asked.  The רב read the note, which said: “I now understand the words in מסכת ברכות that   ״שהביא הקדוש ברוך הוא יסורים על חזקיהו, כדי שיצטרך ישעיהו הנביא לבוא לבקרו.”  The רב immediately instructed his wife to let the writer of the note come into his room.  When he saw that it was רבי אייזל, he apologized and asked him to explain the note.  רבי אייזל explained: “I always found it difficult to understand why השם decreed that חזקיהו should become sick so that ישעיהו should come visit him.  He could have done the opposite: have ישעיהו become sick so that חזקיהו would visit him.  Now I understand that if חזקיהו would have come to visit ישעיהו, his wife wouldn’t have let him in.  But since חזקיהו wasn’t married, there was no concern about ישעיהו being able to visit.”

12/01/2020