זבחים סד

Moshe’s parents were terribly frustrated at their son’s inability to find a שידוך.  Every time a שידוך was proposed, the girl’s father would test him on his learning and would immediately see that he wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed.  At a friend’s suggestion, Moshe’s father hired a tutor to study a סוגיה of גמרא with him day and night for weeks in a בית מדרש in ירושלים, until he knew it cold and could appear to be an עילוי.  A שדכן arranged an introduction and Moshe confidently and brilliantly presented the סוגיה to the prospective bride’s father.  “What doesרבינו חננאל have to say about this גמרא?” the father asked.  Moshe, of course, had no idea who רבינו חננאל was.  He never met him and never even heard of him.  After a moment’s hesitation, he replied: “I really don’t know what he says.  I saw him on the 400 bus, but he got off at כפר חב״ד and I didn’t have a chance to discuss it with him.”  That of course was the end of that שידוך.  When he returned home and told his father what happened, his father said: “You’re a שוטה!  Don’t you know that the 400 bus is express and doesn’t stop in כפר חב״ד?”

06/10/2021