A Blessing in Disguise
A woman once came to ask me for a blessing in the merit of my holy fathers, zy”a. She related that she was in good health, Baruch Hashem, and had no specific problem. She was asking for a general berachah for success. I blessed her, and she went on her way.
Not a few moments passed, when the wails of sirens sounded near my home. Out of curiosity, I stepped outside to see what was happening. I saw that the woman who had left my home just seconds earlier had been hit by a passing car, and an ambulance had been called to bring her to the hospital.
Immediately, I ran down to see how she was faring. When she saw me, she said, “Honored Rav, there was nothing wrong with me before I came to your house for a blessing. All I did was ask for a berachah, and here I am, lying in an ambulance. Did you give me a blessing or a curse?!”
I understood her completely. I, too, was confounded. Could it be that this woman was hurt on account of asking for a blessing? Maybe, had she not come, nothing would have happened. To all appearances, it seemed that she had been cursed instead of blessed.
There are certainly cases in which blessing is nothing but a veneer for curse. Wealth, at times, is the precursor of suffering, as the pasuk in Kohelet (5:12) states that riches hoarded by their owner are to his detriment. On the other hand, there are things which seem to be curse, but are later revealed as blessing.
A few days after this incident, the woman’s family came to pay me a visit. I was filled with dread, afraid that they had come to avenge her suffering. Or perhaps they wanted me to explain exactly how my blessing had caused such pain. In any event, their knock at my door was met with hesitation. With no option, I let them in.
To my delight, I found them all smiling. I understood that they did not have bad feelings toward me.
“We came to thank Hashem and the Rav,” they stated.
“How is your mother doing?” I asked eagerly. “And what are you thanking me for?”
“Our mother is fine,” they began. “We would like to thank you for being an agent of blessing. At the time of the car accident, our mother suffered from nothing more than mild shock. But since she began complaining of strong headaches, the hospital staff took x-rays and various tests, which revealed the beginning of a tumor. Baruch Hashem, it was discovered in its early stages.”
Now I fully understood the extent of my blessing to this woman. What had seemed like a curse was a blessing in disguise. If not for the accident, the woman would not have found out about the growth at such an early stage. Her life would have been in serious danger.
