A Match Made In Heaven

"Who is this young man studying with such concentration?" wondered Rabbi Yehoshua Heshel. "He seems to be unusually dedicated to his studies."

Yehoshua Heshel was a son of the renowned Rabbi Baruch Frankel Teomim.

He had come to Tarnogrod on business. Having completed his business affairs, he went to the synagogue to spend his spare time studying. Seeing the young man sparked an idea in his mind. "I must find out who he is," he resolved. "Perhaps he will make a good husband for my sister!"

Yehoshua Heshel struck up a conversation with the young student.

"What are you learning?" the rabbi inquired of him. The young man told him. Soon the two of them were in a deep Talmudic discussion.

"This young man has a wonderful mind and a deep comprehension of the Torah," concluded Yehoshua Heshel, growing more and more amazed. "And what is your name, young man?" Yehoshua Heshel asked.

"My name is Chaim Halberstam," he replied. "I am the son of Reb Aryeh Leibush, Rabbi of Premishlan."

Yehoshua Heshel noticed that Chaim was lame in one foot. "Well, no matter," he said. "He is still an exceptional young man."

He felt he had to let his father know about him immediately, and wrote his father a letter about Chaim. The letter left out one important fact, though; the young man's limp.

It was Divine providence that when the letter arrived, Reb Aryeh Leibush, Chaim's father, was just then sitting and talking with Rabbi Baruch Frankel Teomin, Yehoshua Heshel's father. He had come to transact some business and had stopped to pay his respects to the great sage.

"Well, well," chuckled Rabbi Baruch Frankel. "Look what we have here! A letter from my son suggesting that your son meet my daughter."

His visitor was astonished by the coincidence. "Really? May I see the letter?" he requested.

"Would you agree to the shiduch?" Rav Baruch Frankel asked.

"It is obviously a shiduch made in heaven!" was the enthusiastic response.

And so the match between the Halberstam and the Frankel Teomim families was struck.

Soon word got out. What a simcha! But in the yeshiva of Rabbi Teomim, his students greeted the news skeptically.

"How does our rabbi make a match for his daughter with a perfect stranger? We must see him first to make sure he's fit to marry our rabbi's daughter."

Two students were chosen to go secretly to Tarnogrod to sneak a look at the young Chaim. They returned with appalling news. The groom was lame.

Somehow the news reached Rochel Feigel. She was horrified. She came running to her father. "Father, Father, how could you do this to me?" she cried, tears of shame and anger running down her face.

"What is it, my daughter?" asked her father, alarmed.

"How could you make me a shiduch with a cripple?" she sobbed.

"Two of your students saw the groom. He's lame! He walks with a limp!"

"How could it be?" He was incredulous. "I want you to know one thing. I will not force you to marry him. If after meeting him, you don't like him, we will call off the shiduch!"

Yehoshua Heshel appeared before his father. He could see his father was livid with anger and he guessed why.

"I trusted you and you deceived me!" Rabbi Baruch Frankel accused his son. "Why didn't you tell me the young man is handicapped?"

"I was afraid you wouldn't consider him. Please, father, see him for yourself. Once you meet and talk to him you'll forget about his limp right away."

His father agreed and Chaim was sent for.

Chaim agreed to come for he sensed that something was amiss.

Upon his arrival, he asked questions, and the people admitted that the bride was unhappy. "Let me speak to her privately," Chaim requested. Chaim and Rochel Feigel met for the first time.

He was not a bad-looking young man, Rochel Feigel confessed to herself, but he definitely had a limp. "Please, would you mind looking in the mirror?" Chaim asked her.

She thought, "What a strange request!" but she walked over to the mirror. What she saw in it made her gasp in fright. There in the mirror was her exact likeness, except for one thing...she was lame in one foot.

"You were supposed to be born lame," Chaim explained to her gently, "but knowing that I would be your partner in life, I asked heaven that I should be the lame one, instead of you."

After a moment Chaim added, "Now, do you still refuse to marry me?"

His words touched Rochel Feigel's heart. After he had revealed this fact, how could she object to the shiduch anymore? In fact, she thought, she rather liked the young man. She walked out of the room with a smile on her lips.

Everyone respected and liked the new young groom, but none more than the Rabbi of Leipnik. "My son-in-law's foot might be crooked, but his brain is very straight," he declared.

In later years, Reb Chaim Halberstam became none other than the holy Sanzer Rebbe, of blessed memory, to whom thousands turned for spiritual guidance.

Excerpted from: Why The Baal Shem Tov Laughed, by Sterna Citron, published by Jason Aronson.