Peninei Emunim
Pearls of Tefillah in the Parashah
Dark clouds hovered over the city of Yazd, Iran. A chilling wind shrieked in the night, answered by a frightening echo...The Jewish residents were afraid to go out to the markets and offer their merchandise: antiques, species, rugs and more.
What happened to the community of Yazd that was making the Jews grey with grief? Why were their foreheads lined with worry?
Reb Yosef, one of the community’s dignitaries, who managed a chain of thriving textile stories whose reputation for quality spread far and wide, was being accused of terrible crimes – all libelous and false. His Muslim competitors did not take kindly to his success and the fact that he was so well-liked by residents of the city and they had resolved to come up with an evil libel to knock him down.
At the rapid trial, which lacked any justice, as the scales were tipped with hatred and merciless persecution, Reb Yosef was convicted of all the accusations, and a heartless judge signed his sentence with a black stamp: ‘Death by hanging.’
The Jewish community in Yazd was stunned and broken. The days of waiting between the announcement of the terrible sentence and when it was set to be carried out, became Yamim Noraim. The rabbanim and parnassim of the city gathered everyone in the shuls, young and old, women and children, to recite Tehillim and to daven and plead for the sword hanging over Reb Yosef’s head to be removed.
The days passed like an eternity. The nights were also blacker than black. The authorities were determined to carry out the hanging ceremony, and perhaps, deep in their hearts, were even excited about it...Reb Yosef was languishing in a dark, narrow prison cell. His body was broken and beaten, but his spirit as strong, filled with emunah in the yeshuah of Hashem, which could come in the blink of an eye.
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That bitter Wednesday drew closer, and there was obvious activity in Yazd. Strong, energetic workers prepared the stage and the hangman’s pole ahead of the punishment of the ‘serious criminal’ Reb Yosef.
With evil enthusiasm, they polished the tall pole, scrubbed the hooks on which the rope would hang, and looped ropes from one side to the next. They arranged a viewing area, where Reb Yosef’s family could take leave of him before the noose would be placed around his neck.
The time came. The announcement was made and Reb Yosef was led to the noose, surrounded by a tight ring of guards and armed police. He looked deep into the eyes of his loved ones, which were swollen with tears. His family stared back at him silently, their hearts torn to shreds at the fate their loved one was facing, and they were helpless to do anything.
A group of men lifted Reb Yosef and placed him in front of a high chair, and ordered him to climb onto it.
Reb Yosef complied silently, his face beaded in sweat.
Two hangmen skillfully tied the noose around his neck. Reb Yosef stood silently, tied to the rope. There was a smell of death in the air.
“What is your final request?” the head hangman growled arrogantly.
“To move the location of the hanging to the other side of the room,” Reb Yosef replied, to the astonishment of everyone present. A group of hangmen hurried to fulfill his request – the likes of which they had never heard in the history of the hanging house. Usually, they heard requests like wanting to part from the family, confession before death, requests for forgiveness or promises of revenge...This simplistic and utterly senseless request...But that was the law: The final request of the accused had to be fulfilled!
Two hangmen took off the rope and hurried to move it to the opposite side. The others replaced the hooks and dragged the chair across the room.
“Let’s go,” the head hangman urged, and they took Reb Yosef to the new place, as the tortured gazes of his loved ones followed him as well. To their surprise, they saw him closing his eyes and murmuring.
Again their ordered him to stand and get onto the chair.
The noose was wrapped twice around his neck and the other end was attached to the hook.
The head hangman gave the sign, and the chair was kicked away.
The room was tense, enveloped in a thick silence.
And suddenly...The ceiling collapsed and Reb Yosef fell to the ground, tangled in the rope.
“Take it off,” the hangman ordered in panic. Because the law was that if they tied the rope around his neck and the ceiling collapsed, then they’d already carried out the punishment and it was a sign from Heaven that he was rendered innocent.
Chaos erupted. The hangmen worked quickly to remove the noose, as the family cried and exulted as their loved one’s life was saved in front of their eyes.
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When they came home, still agitated but overjoyed, the family did not want to tire Reb Yosef with excessive talking, but there were two questions that gave them no peace: Why didn’t you ask as a final wish to be able to part from your loved ones, to provide for your children, or the like, and instead you asked to move the noose to the other side of the room? And what were you murmuring when they tied the noose over your neck the second time?
Reb Yosef nodded with a smile and responded with extraordinary simplicity: “Having the rope tied around my neck terrified me, but at the same time it sharped the recognition that my life was in the Hands of the Creator. I felt with certainty that there is nothing for me to rely on than my Father in heaven, and only He can provide a yeshuah now. At those moments, all I wanted was to gain a few more minutes of tefillah, and that’s why I asked to have the noose moved. My heart told me that a tefillah with this feeling would surely breach the gates of Heaven and would provide me a yeshuah instantly. And indeed, you see, my tefillah was accepted and I was saved.”
Yishma Mei’heichalo Koli p. 334
Suspending Hanging
לקימו תוכל אשר דבר בו יש אם למדת באשר תחפש ,הספר מן תקום וכאשר
The Tiferes Yerushalayim shul for the Yazdim community established by immigrants from Yazd, Iran
