There was a groom in Vilna that married into a very wealthy family. However, soon after the marriage took place, the groom abandoned his wife and disappeared, likely because he was overly anxious or scared and perhaps regretted getting married (however the story as told, does not give the reason why he deserted his wife).
After two years had passed, the groom relayed the story of the abandonment to another man whom he had happened upon. That person happened to look very similar to the groom. Nefariously, the man was planning on returning to the abandoned woman in an attempt to impersonate the groom. In order to do so, the imposter asked the groom about every detail of the wedding and marriage and committed it to memory. When the imposter returned to the woman, she was impressed by his ability to recall the details of their wedding but was still unsure whether he indeed was her long-lost groom. The imposter was brought to the Vilna Gaon (“GRA”) for questioning. The man answered the GRA’s questions. However, when the GRA asked the imposter to identify the place in the synagogue where he usually sat, the imposter was unable to answer the GRA. The ruse was over and the imposter had been caught.
The GRA was asked to explain how he knew to ask this particular question to the imposter. The GRA explained, "When an evil person prepares to lie and deceive, he has no concept of holiness in mind." Knowing that when someone is engaged in falsehood, holiness and spirituality cannot also “be on their radar”, the GRA suspected that the imposter had not obtained from the groom details related to spirituality such as where he sat in the synagogue.
We see this principal at work in this week’s Parsha. The Torah tells us: "And they [the brothers of Yosef] told him [Yaakov] all of Yosef's words... and he saw the wagons that Yosef had sent... and the spirit of Yaakov, their father, was revived." (Bereishis 45:27)
