THE MIDRASH ABOUT THE WEASEL AND THE WELL

Once there was a teenage girl who was traveling to visit her father. She erred in her route and went to an uninhabited place. When it got to midday it was burning hot. She became so thirsty that she was near delirious. Finally, in the distance, she noted a pit and ran to it. She saw a bucket next to it and understood that there was water down there. She rapidly lowered herself down to the bottom of the well and drank to her heart's content.

When she finished and was restored, she looked up and saw that, in her excitement, she had climbed such a long way down that there was no way that she would be able to climb back up. She started screaming for help.

A man came by and heard her voice, which he followed to the pit. When he arrived, she was so far down, that he was not able to discern her or whether she was even human. He asked if she was a human being, and, after she said she was, he asked her how she came to this predicament. She told him. He said that he is a Jew and a Kohen, the holy people who serve in G-d's Temple in Jerusalem. He asked her which nation she was from. She was also a Jew. [Jewish law forbids a man and woman from touching when they are not married nor immediate blood relatives.] He said that a Jewish man can't just shlep a woman on his back. "If I rescue you, will you marry me?" "Yes," she replied.

When she had been saved, they each said their name, family name, and the name of the town each lived in. They covenanted to be married in full accordance with Torah law, and that he would come to her parents' home for her. He asked, "Who will be the witnesses that we are committed to marry each other?" Just then, a weasel went by. She said, "The Heavens, the weasel that just ran by and the well which you just shlepped me out of will be the witnesses that we will not cheat each other." With this pact in place, they both went home.

The young woman remained true to her commitment FAITHFULLY. As it worked out, she was growing into a lovely young lady and courters started to come, seeking marriage. To every man, she gave refusal. She was "spoken for," so "nothing doing." Young men kept coming and coming and coming, trying to win her. It just wouldn't stop [she must have been an extraordinary girl - both in character and in attractiveness]. When the suitors just kept coming and coming, she conducted herself as if she went insane and tore her clothes, until the men altogether stopped coming.

The Kohen, on the other hand, returned home and promptly forgot altogether about this young woman and his commitment to her. "Out of sight, out of mind." [At this point, the women in the audience say, "just like a man!"]

He married a different woman who became pregnant and gave birth to a baby. After the birth, a weasel strangled the infant to death.

She became pregnant again and gave birth to a second baby. After the birth, this baby fell into a well and drowned.

The wife said to her husband, "If my two babies would have died normal deaths, I would accept the deaths as G-d's judgement. Since my babies both died unnaturally, this cannot be without sin! Tell me your deeds! Why did my babies die through a weasel and a well?!"

It hit him and he remembered that the Heavens, the weasel and the well were the enforcers of his marriage pact with the young woman whom he rescued. He recounted the story. His wife said, "Go to this woman. She is the mate destined to be given to you by G-d." He divorced his wife and left for the other woman's town.

When he got to the town and asked to be directed to this girl, every one told him that she had gone crazy and that he should forget about her and return home. When he got to her father, he told his betrothed's father the story and announced that he was here to marry the girl. "But my daughter has 'lost her mind.'"

And his reply to the girl's father was, "I ACCEPT HER WITH ALL HER FAULTS!" [He came around fully in his capacity to accept responsibility and commitment. He learned his lesson. He became a relator in whom a spouse could, from now on, have unbending faith.]

He went to his betrothed, and she started her "crazy act." He reminded her of the story of the weasel and the well, and her mind returned to normal [in the midrash's going out of its way to say that her mind "returned to normal," this gives us the additional message that if one becomes habituated or conditioned in any kind of crazy behavior, it actually adds craziness to the mind - a profound message 1. in today's tough and complex world and 2. in the context of serious or troubled man-woman relationships; she had to actively and consciously restore her mind back to a normal state from a crazy state]. She said, "I was always steadfast in our commitment."