האשה אשר נתתה עמדי הוא נתנה לי  (בראשית ג:יב)

The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave of the tree.

An Alexander Chassid did a shidduch with his son, and during the engagement, he heard rumors that the Kallah wasn’t too observant, desecrating Shabbos, etc.

The chassan’s father was very pained and consulted with the Tiferes Shmuel of Alexander about breaking off the shidduch.  The Tiferes Shmiel told him,, “Go home and discuss with your mechatunim when to set a date for the chasunah., as if nothing was deterring you.”

The chassid was shocked by his Rebbe’s advice, he assumed the Rebbe would tell him to break the shidduch.  Since he was a devout chassid, he didn’t question the Rebbe and sent a messenger to his mechatunim requesting to set a date for the wedding.

When the kallah realized that the mechatunim were seriously preparing for the wedding, she wrote a letter to her chassan stating that she couldn’t continue leading a Jewish life.  She only agreed to marry if her chassan would cut off his beard and absolve him from Yiddishkeit.  If he agrees, she’s ready to set a wedding date; if not, she asks to break off the shidduch.

When the chassan received the letter from his kallah, his father traveled back to the Tiferes Shmuel and asked how to proceed.

The Tiferes Shmiel smiled and said, “This is what I was waiting for!”  He continued, “When you mentioned wanting to drop the shidduch, I hesitated since one who breaks an engagement must pay half the dowry.  Therefore, I wanted you to mention that you were preparing for the wedding so that the kallah wouldn’t have a choice but to break the engagement, and now her side will need to pay reparations.”

Filed under Parshas Bereishis |