סנהדרין כב

Moshe Mendelsohn, the Jewish philosopher, was a hunchback.  His wife, however, was a beautiful, kind and wealthy woman.  The two were the odd couple.  One day, a close friend asked him how their marriage came about.  Mendelsohn told him the following:  “When I was young, her wealthy father hired me as a tutor for his beautiful daughter.  I was immediately attracted to her, but she pushed me off.  One day I asked her whether she believes that marriages are made in Heaven.  She responded “Yes.”  That being so, I said: ‘Let me tell you a story.  As you know forty days before the birth of a child Heaven declares בת פלוני לבן פלוני.  When I heard it declared that you were destined to be my wife, I was curious to know what was selected for me.  I asked the מלאך and he told me that my wife will be ugly and hunchbacked.  I was terribly distressed and pleaded with the מלאך to ask the רבונו של עולם to make me the hunchback instead so that my wife be beautiful without blemish.’  My story touched her heart and she agreed to be my wife.”

06/10/2021