wow ANOTHER anonymous debate! who is taking this seriously, by show of hands?
just fyi, i am involved in arachim, and had the fascinating experience of hearing the following story from a VERY well respected senior arachim lecturer (sorry i dont like to write peoples names on the net)
he met a doctor at a seminar. @ the end of the seminar, the doctor (whose name he told to me, this was a private conversation.) emotionally stated that hearing the proofs of yiddishkeit so rationally presented had changed his life forever. later the lecturer asked him (im shorthanding this), tell me what inspired you to come? he replied, i have been a doctor for many yrs now, but always i had in mind to learn more about my religion one day, because of two reasons, and if not for both, i doubt i would be here. one is people know i am jewish, and sometimes i realize how sad it is that my christian friends, even the most dissasociated ones, have at least a basic idea of their religion, while i had no idea what mine was about.
(posters note:READY FOR IT? HERE IT COMES. anything in parentheses is me talking)
the second reason, is that way back when i was a resident, i was on morgue duty one night (or wherever it is they keep dead bodies in a hospital before being transported out) my duties included making sure people who had died of certain causes were really completely dead by administering increasingly higher electric shocks to the point where a human being could not possibly survive (you can google this for more info). one night an old jewish man was wheeled into the hospital, he had died naturally from a heart attack. he was sent down to me, and i thought about how he reminded me of my grampa, with his long beard and sidelocks. anyways, i administered the regular testing process, and when it was definitively determined that this man was absolutely and completely dead i turned around to get the papers to start the paperwork. i was alone down there, since in the hospital i was in they dont usually station more than one person at a time down there unless needed. when i turned back to the body he was staring straight at me and sitting up! i was more frightened than i had ever been in my life! he looked straight at me, and using my full hebrew name (ploni ben ploni) which NO ONE KNEW & i hadnt heard since my gramps made me have a barmitzvah, he said to me:
DO YOU PUT ON TEFILLIN? my gramps had bought me a pair for my barmitzvah, but after he died, i never used them again, it had only been to humor him anyway. DO YOU SAY KADDISH FOR YOUR FATHER? he had recently died. i mutely shook my head no. the dead mans burning eyes looked straight into mine and he shouted YOUR ZEIDY PLONI BEN PLONI (he used his full hebrew name) IS VERY SAD BECAUSE OF YOUR ACTIONS! PUT ON TEFILLIN! SAY KADDISH FOR YOUR FATHER! HE ASKED ME TO GIVE YOU THIS MESSAGE! then the man collapsed, completely lifeless, back on the table.
i was so shaken i could not move for a long time. eventually i went to the break room, where some of the other doctors saw me. concerned, they asked what happened. when i told them, they all looked at each other, and then burst out laughing. one of them informed me that it wasnt uncommon for people to have “experiences” while working alone with the dead, usually because they were tired at the end of a shift of working only with dead bodies. we all had a great laugh together about it. but i knew what had happened there was very very real. and so i resolved to one day do something about it, if only for my zeidy.
well thats the story, and fyi the lecturer when he told it to me said he asked the man questions about details in the morgue room and other things, until he himself was satisfied that this actually happened. he is a BIG skeptic and hates all things mystical, but he told me that he completely believed that this doctor, a top notch professional who had an excellent reputation (and still does) had really had that experience.
the lecturer then went to say “the amazing thing was, that was only ONE OF THE TWO reasons he went to the seminar.”
so do strange things really happen? probably. but really, all thats important is how it affects you.
good night!