The fall of Amalek

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The fall of Amalek

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Ribbie Danzinger

Wed, Feb 06 2008, 5:22 am

I decided to allow myself access to Imamother (after overcoming my addiction - at least for the time-being...) to post this (received in an email):

Quote:

An Orthodox Jew from New Jersey was involved in a car accident and accidently killed an old non-Jewish man. Although the courts found the Jewish man not guilty, he could not carry the the pains of the guilt that he killed an old man. It gave him no peace and it caused him to lose his appetite and was unable to sleep for weeks.

He decided to seek counsel from the revered sage, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky Shlita of Bnei Brak, and wrote him a letter asking the Rav what tikun [spiritual rectification] can he do because he accidently killed a non-Jew.

The Rav wrote him an answer that included one word, "Amalek".

The Jew did not understand this answer and continued suffering with sleepless nights. At some point he decided to move away from his town to begin a new life. He began searching for a new house and found a house that appealed to him. The owners of the apartment told him that they are eager to get rid of this house because they inherited from their dead father that was killed in a car accident.

After short investigation, turns out the apartment belonged to the non-Jew who was accidentaly killed by the Jew. In the basement of the house, the Orthodox Jew found materials belonging to the old non-Jew man. He was shocked to find a picture of the old man during his youth proudly wearing an SS uniform, standing next to Hitler, yimach shemo.

It turned out that this old man was an SS officer in the Nazi army and after the war, he came to the United States and hid his past. The SS Nazi Officer also kept other documents, including all the names of the Jews he personally murdered.

When he read the names of the Jewish people that were murdered, he found both of his parent's name on this list.

HaShem avenged their blood.

It was then that he understood Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky Shlita's answer that contained one word, "AMALEK".

mandksima

Wed, Feb 06 2008, 7:43 am

wow! gave me goosebumps and a smile!

trafficgal

Wed, Feb 06 2008, 8:18 am

Wow I got goosebumps to!

grin

Wed, Feb 06 2008, 8:34 am

ma rabu ma'asecha Hashem - ken yovdu kol soneinu

Motek

Wed, Feb 06 2008, 4:39 pm

I read it as a Nachman Seltzer story in Hamodia magazine and wondered whether the story is true.

gryp

Wed, Feb 06 2008, 6:33 pm

It doesn't sound like a true story to me either. Confused

Ruchel

Thu, Feb 07 2008, 4:36 am

I hope it's true. Weirder things have happened, but it's a bit big, especially keeping a list of the victims.

Ribbie Danzinger

Thu, Feb 07 2008, 5:26 am

I agree that it does sound like it is a tall story, however the fact that Rav Kanievsky's name is mentioned makes me think that this is perhaps a valid story.

mummy-bh

Thu, Feb 07 2008, 5:49 am

I don't care if it's true or not. Point is, it COULD be true, and it gave me the shivers anyway.

mimivan

Thu, Feb 07 2008, 5:52 am

Yes I've heard other hasgocha protis stories that were every bit as "weird" but verifiable.

Like a German geyoress who married a born Jew. At first, the chasan's mother was vehemently opposed to the match, as she was a Holocaust survivor and who knows what her family was doing during the war. The mothers met and the embraced; it turned out the mother of the geyores hid the choson when he was a baby and pretended to the Gestapo that she had had twins. She had always joked to her husband about how they would get married someday.

btw they met completely "by chance" through a shadchan in Israel..neither of them had connections there...

there are many stories like this which are amazing but almost incredible.

mimivan

Thu, Feb 07 2008, 7:02 am

mimivan wrote:

Yes I've heard other hasgocha protis stories that were every bit as "weird" but verifiable.

Like a German geyoress who married a born Jew. At first, the chasan's mother was vehemently opposed to the match, as she was a Holocaust survivor and said, "who knows what her family was doing during the war?" The mothers met and the embraced; it turned out the mother of the geyores hid the choson when he was a baby and pretended to the Gestapo that she had had twins. She had always joked to her husband about how they would get married someday.

btw they met completely "by chance" through a shadchan in Israel..neither of them had connections there...

there are many stories like this which are amazing but almost incredible.

gryp

Thu, Feb 07 2008, 10:00 am

Ribbie Danzinger wrote:

I agree that it does sound like it is a tall story, however the fact that Rav Kanievsky's name is mentioned makes me think that this is perhaps a valid story.

I would like to believe it. Maybe we aren't being told the entire story which would fill in some of the holes.

Motek

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 2:00 pm

In issue 484 of Hamodia magazine, there is a letter to the editor which asks whether the story, as it was published in their magazine by Nachman Seltzer, is true. Nachman Seltzer responded and said yes. Only certain details irrelevant to the story were changed. He personally spoke to the man it happened to who confirmed the facts as well as his communication with R' Kanievsky.

I don't have N. Seltzer's story in front of me now, but I have seen other versions of the story that embellished on it. I think this:

Quote:

The SS Nazi Officer also kept other documents, including all the names of the Jews he personally murdered.

When he read the names of the Jewish people that were murdered, he found both of his parent's name on this list.

was not in N. Seltzer's story.

Tefila

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 3:58 pm

Quote:

I don't care if it's true or not. Point is, it COULD be true, and it gave me the shivers anyway.

Same here

Ribbie Danzinger

Mon, Jun 16 2008, 5:04 am

Motek wrote:

Quote:

was not in N. Seltzer's story.

Thanks for updating us, Motek.

ChossidMom

Mon, Jun 16 2008, 5:57 am

Motek wrote:

I read it as a Nachman Seltzer story in Hamodia magazine and wondered whether the story is true.

Nachman Seltzer is my nephew. Every single story he writes in Hamodia is 100% TRUE.

I remember reading that story and getting the same goosebumps!

gryp

Mon, Jun 16 2008, 11:15 am

It would be nice to read the real story.

ChossidMom

Mon, Jun 16 2008, 12:08 pm

I'll ask him if he has it for me.

flowerpower

Mon, Jun 16 2008, 12:12 pm

Chossid-nice! I believed that story and I'm not a believer many times.

ChossidMom

Mon, Jun 16 2008, 2:51 pm

Here is the email I received just now from Nachman Seltzer:

Quote:

This is the story as heard from the person it happened to.
He was driving in Lakewood and a car driven by an old man went through a stop sign and hit him. They were killed. He was very shaken up by the story but it wasn't his fault. The next day he was driving a different car and again he got into a car accident and again nothing happened to him. Now he was very shaken up. He was so shaken up that he had someone who was in Eretz Yisroel go into Reb Chaim Kanievski and ask him what to do. First Reb Chaim said what's the problem? He's okay, he has a good mazal. But the person persisted and said that he was very nervous because there had been two accidents and in one the people had been killed.
Reb Chaim said, He killed "Amalek."
He didn't know what that meant, but Reb Chaim had said it presumably meaning he didn't have to worry about it, so he accepted the situation, and that was that.
A short while later, a friend of his was looking into buying a house. He told him that the children of the elderly couple were probably looking to sell because they didn't live around the area and he should get in touch with them. So his friend got in touch and was able to meet their daughter who agreed to show him the house. Inside the house, he saw that there was no washer dryer and he asked the daughter why. She said that her parents were Germans and did things the old fashioned way. There was also a book about Hitler in the house. It was then that Reb Chaim's words came home to them. You killed Amalek. Germans who were the right age to have been involved with some literature about Hitler. There was no picture and certainly no records of any other kind.The old man most definitely did not kill the driver's parents in the war.
That's the story as accurately as I know it.

Nachman Seltzer

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