Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Lot's daughters - a story from Igros Moshe

My son’s Rebbe last week told the boys to look in the intro to vol. 8 of Igros Moshe for a story that relates to P’ Vayeira. I’ll save you the search – this is a wild one. A man took gravely ill with some affliction of his tongue (this apparently was in Russia). R’ Moshe visited the man and he asked everyone to leave the room so he could tell R’ Moshe privately what had happened to him. The previous week was P’ Vayeira, and the man related how he had been speaking of the daughters of Lot and how foolish and wicked they were. That night two old women came to him in a dream and introduced themselves as Lot’s daughters. The man’s words had made such an impression in the olam ha’emes that they came to set the record straight. They explained that everyone knew they were saved miraculously from Sdom by G-d. Had they chosen to do so, they could have said that their children came miraculously from G-d as well – immaculate concption. This could have been the cause of a whole new religion of avodah zarah. But instead, explained Lot’s daughters, they chose to acknowledge that their children came from their father – they deliberately named them Mo-Av and Amon to indicate that yes, they mistakenly had these children through their father, but they were not immaculately conceived or a result of any miracle. As punishment for his speaking ill the man’s tongue was afflicted, and after telling this story to R’ Moshe he passed away.

9 comments:

  1. And the fact that it's RMF speaking gives it more credence than most of the other "wonder stories" that get swapped around.

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  2. Actually, I'm not sure who wrote the intro (I think vol 8 was published posthumously).

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  3. Anonymous2:27 PM

    Yeah - and you shouldn't be too sure about who wrote Vol. 8 either!

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  4. Anonymous9:27 PM

    One of RMF's nephews wrote the introduction - a son of Rav Moshe Tendler from YU.

    Also, if you want to the see the story inside, take a look here:

    http://www.hebrewbooks.org/922

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  5. Anonymous6:40 PM

    what page?

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  6. 1. I spent a great deal of time with Reb Moshe; I took care of him during his summers in the mountains and learned with him as well, and visited him very often during the year. He told me the story himself once, and I heard him tell it to someone else at least once.

    2. Reb Dovid, his son, says that every teshuva was written by him. This does not necessarily mean that they all should have been printed: some teshuvos are easily misunderstood outside their context.

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  7. Anonymous11:20 PM

    "What page?" -- anon., the previous

    HERE [on p. 21 of the PDF copy of p.15 of the Sefer - between the stars. (Why they bracket the story, does anyone know?)].

    I just searched the PDF file for "Lot" (in Hebrew, of course).

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  8. Anonymous1:40 AM

    I was discussing this story with someone and he threw at something at me that shocked me. He said that Reb Moshe Wolfson said it over on Shavous when there was a siyum on Yevomas he said reb Moshe was Misakin the Klipos of Lots Daughter's

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  9. Anonymous9:56 PM

    Rav Moshe's mofsim are believed but mofsim from a chasidish rebbe are not? odd isn't it. If I told you that the Modzitzer Rebbe Ztzl was misakin Lot's daughters you would laugh, haha chasidish stories.

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