 The following episode is at once funny and frightening. Funny in its actuality but frightening in its potential misunderstanding.
After our marriage we lived for a few years in Seattle.
There was at the time a thirteen-fourteen year old Jewish girl who used to babysit for us. She came from a non-religious family and had little if any Jewish background. She did, however, have fine character traits and had an interest in knowing more about Yiddishkeit (Judaism). We had her over often for the Shabbos seudos (meals) and tried to give over some Jewish concepts. She was very receptive.
Kiddush Levanah
One Motzo’ei Shabbos (Saturday night) she was at our home when I started to go outside to be mekadesh the levanah. I explained to her that I was going outside to make a blessing on the moon which we do once a month. I went through the front door which was off of our living room which contained a large picture window. As I walked onto the front lawn I stepped into a hole in the ground and twisted my ankle. I fell over and was in excruciating pain and for a short while couldn’t move. After a few minutes my wife, who had been in the kitchen, came out and asked where I was. The girl, who had seen the whole thing, answered calmly, “Oh, he’s outside bowing down to the moon.” “What!!??” said my wife and rushed outside where the whole story unfolded.
A Possibility
I had said that it was frightening. If I had gotten up before my wife had noticed my absence I would have finished the brachah and come inside and perhaps never have mentioned the extracurricular activity. The girl would have been sure that Orthodox Jews bow down to the moon – she saw it herself.
A Word of Caution
There is a tendency for people to automatically accept what they believe they have seen. Granted, the above example is an extreme one. However, there are many cases, less extreme, where one believes that what he personally “saw” must be so. A word of caution is often appropriate.
1 I grew up in Seattle. I maintain that its name is really Si’at Keil (with the help of Hashem). This is because of the tremendous mesiras nefesh (overcoming difficulties) on the part of the community for Torah. It was an unwritten rule that parents who were committed in their Yiddishkeit would send their boys back east to yeshivas for a number of years. What that entailed in those days was that parents only saw their children for a few weeks in the summer and that was it. We spoke on the phone once a week. Because of this mesiras nefesh the boys had an inordinate rate of success in their learning.
On another note, the meshulachim who used to travel out west used to say that there were three cities in the west which were frum. “Sod Hashem lirei’av (Hashem makes known His secrets to those that fear Him).” Sod (samech, vav, daled) stood for “Seattle,” “Vinipeg” and “Denver.”
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