Sir Moshe Montefiore & Shabbat

Welcome to the Daily Holy Story. Sir Moses Montefiore was sitting at his beautiful table on Shabbat, enjoying the meal and really celebrating with Oneg Shabbat (delight of Shabbat). To his right on the table was the officer of the town who had come to visit Sir Moses Montefiore. Suddenly, a messenger entered the home with a letter in his hand. The messenger said, “This letter is a personal letter to you, Sir Moses Montefiore, from King Nikolai.” Sir Moses Montefiore took the letter and put it on the table. “Why don’t you open it?” asked the minister of the town. Moses Montefiore replied, So the minister said, Montefiore refused, saying that it’s not honorable for the minister to open the letter for him. So the minister called one of the officers and asked him to open the letter. The officer opened the letter and immediately fell down and died. The letter was laced with strong poison. Nikolai was a Jew-hater, a real anti-Semite, and he wished to kill Sir Montefiore. But he was saved, and the minister was saved, in the merit of the holy Shabbat, because he would not open the letter, as halacha (Jewish law) says not to open a letter on Shabbat. Thank you for listening, and have a lovely, lovely day.