The Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation shared a story. Shaya sat across the table from the nice young man who was engaged to his daughter, Dassi. The Choson had asked for a meeting, and it was short. He said, “This is nothing against Dassi, it’s just a feeling inside me that this marriage isn’t right for me.”
Shaya assured the boy that there were no hard feelings. Better a broken engagement than a broken marriage. He wished the Choson well and went home to deliver the news.
Dassi was devastated. The whole family wandered around in a state of disbelief. Then Shaya got a call from an old friend of his who said, “You don’t know this, but my daughter also had a broken engagement. I’m going to tell you something that helped us. At the time, we made a Kabalah that when people would ask us what happened, we wouldn’t speak any Lashon Hara about the Choson. In that merit, we asked that the Chofetz Chaim should intervene for us and help our daughter find her Bashert quickly. And she did.”
Shaya knew this was the right way. He gathered his family together and said, “We all know that we’ll be getting questions from people about the Choson. He’s going to be dating, Dassi’s going to be dating, and people are going to ask what happened. We’re going to be tempted to vent our pain. I want us to agree right now that there will be absolutely no Lashon Hara said about him. In that Zechus, I believe that the Chofetz Chaim himself will intervene for us and Dassi will soon be a Kallah.”
The family accepted this Kabalah, and it was one that was difficult to keep. But Shaya knew they had made the right decision when, on the 24th of Elul, which is the Chofetz Chaim’s Yahrtzeit, Dassi became engaged!
Reprinted from the Parshas Vayeira 5786 email of Rabbi Yehuda Winzelberg’s Torah U’Tefilah.
