The Boy with the Terrible Scar
There was a Yeshivah Bochur who was having difficulty with Shidduchim, and he went to ask Rav Chaim Kanievsky, zt”l, for a Brachah. The Bochur told Rav Chaim that he had a terrible scar on his face since his childhood, and he thought that it was because of this scar that he was having so much trouble dating.
Rav Chaim advised him that the next time he has a date, he should tell the girl right at the beginning how he got his scar, and perhaps the explanation will allow her to look past it. A few weeks later, another girl was suggested for this boy, and a date was arranged.
Right at the beginning when they first met, as per Rav Chaim’s instructions, the Bochur told her that before they really get started, he wanted to explain that he had a scar on his face since he was little.
He told her that when he was about thirteen years old, he was walking down a small alley in Yerushalayim, and he saw a group of Arab boys who were attaching a young girl. He ran over to them and pushed all the Arabs off of her, and the girl was then able to run away. The Arabs then turned on him instead, and he ended up getting hit in the face with a metal rod, which had left a scar.
The girl then said to him, “I have been looking to thank you my whole life! I was that girl that you saved in the alley that day. Thank you for saving my life!” Just a short while later, they were engaged to get married!
Reprinted from the Parshas Shelach 5784 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
