The Child Who Would Not Speak

A resident of Ashmina, in his memoirs, wrote that there were many mystical stories told about Rav Mordechai. He relates one that he heard from townspeople who hosted a woman with a child who could not speak.

A woman once came to the Rav with a boy of about two in her arms. Since the Rav was still in the shul, she went into a neighboring house to rest until he returned. She told her hosts that she had been married for many years without children, and that two years earlier she had remarkably given birth to the child in her arms. The little boy was beautiful, but he could not speak at all. The doctors said he was mute and would never speak, and when she heard this she came to Ashmina to beg the Rav to bless her son and restore his speech.

The Rav came home, and the woman and her child left their belongings with their hosts and were led into his house. Soon afterward the woman ran out of the Rav's house in great haste, her face wet with tears. She rushed back for her belongings and left town in a great hurry.

It later became known what had happened inside. When the woman told the Rav about her child, he said, "Perhaps it is better that the child does not speak." The woman cried and said that the boy was her only child and her only consolation in life, and asked how he could stay mute all his life. The Rav answered again, "Perhaps it is better that the child does not speak." When she insisted that he bless the boy with speech, the Rav turned to the child and asked, "My son, why do you not speak?" The child was silent. The Rav asked him again, "My son, I ask you, why do you not speak?"

Then a miracle occurred. The child opened his mouth and said, "Rav, what shall I say, that I am a mamzer?" The woman burst into bitter weeping and cried out, "Rav, let him be silent. It is much better that he be silent all his life than speak." With that she ran from the Rav's house.