Rav Yechezkel - Meshulach Alert

Greg Gershman put a meshulach alert up on his blog and I was suprised that I have been visited by the same person. I used to try to be nice to meshulachim and invited them in and give them something to eat and drink. But after this guy, I stopped.

We gave R' Yechezkel tea and food one time and he stayed for like an hour. Ok, so that not so bad. But then he started coming everyday, at the worst times, and expecting to be served, which was just too much for us. He then started making out these claims that he could guess the gender of a baby and if you give him $1,000, he can ensure that you will have a boy. Either way, the guy is a nutcase and we don't invited him or any other meshulach now. We do try to give them a drink, maybe some portable food (i.e. an apple), and rides to places (because I imagine how hard it is to be a meshulach).

I used to have a hard time telling people no when they don't have a teuda, but I am really getting strict. Its true that R' Heinneman made a great system and we should all abide by it and the meshulach should understand. I asked somebody close to Rabbie Heinneman why R' Heinneman didn't give R' Yechezkel a teuda. This person told me that R' Yechezkel is just a regular guy butcomes around pertending he can use kabbala like Rav Kaduri, zatzal, so Rabbi Heinnemann didn't give him a teuda. It is kind of weird that R' Yechezkel keeps coming back to Baltimore so often.

One last thing: my wife is from Montreal and there have been a few incidents this year where someone let a meshulach in and there were problems. One woman in Montreal was even stabbed this year by a Meshulach who asked to use her bathroom! It so hard to want to be nice in this world when there are such crazies but I guess we all have to be alert and not so trusting with strangers. One rule I think is important that my wife does now is that she just doesn't answer the door for strangers when she is alone.