Tanchuma Vayikra – What a Scam!
Recently, a shady brokerage firm had brokers call from the phone book two thousand people. They told 1000 that a stock would go up the rest that it would go down. Needless to say few bought in.
When the stock went down they called back the thousand people who had been told that it would go down and told 500 of them that another stock would go up and the remainder that it would go down.
At this point hundreds of suckers bought in and lost their shirts.
I do hope that these people did not learn their trade through Torah study but the very same scam, and them some, is found the Midrash Tanchuma on our perasha.
“Legs which run do to evil.” (Mishle 6-19) this Pasuk refers to Achav Ben Koliah and Tzidkiyah Ben Maasiyah who sinned in Jerusalem. As if this was not enough, when they were banished to Babelonia they got even worse.
They mediated for each other the vilest scams. Achav would go to a governing official and he would say “I am the Great Prophet Ploni. The Holy One Blessed be He has sent me to tell your wife something.” The official would say that she is right in the next room go and speak to her. Achav would then tell the lady that G-d has sent him to tell her that G-d wants her to give birth to a prophet so you must go to fool around with Tzidkiyah and then you will have children who are prophets. And so Tzidkiyah would do for Achav.
This was their hobby for several years. See how bad these guys were. They made a name for themselves that they were great prophets. When a women was pregnant and she asked him; “Oh prophet what gender is in my womb?” He would always say that the child will be a son. [In order to cover his track like the above brokers] he then went to the lady’s neighbor and would say that he was just being nice when he said that she would have boy and in reality it will really be a girl. If it would be a boy then she would say that Ploni the prophet foresaw it. If it was a girl then the neighbor would tell her that she had really been informed that it would be girl .
Purim Sameach