{"id":60320,"date":"2018-07-30T15:04:13","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T20:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=60320"},"modified":"2018-09-12T00:42:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T05:42:39","slug":"true-ghost-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/true-ghost-story\/","title":{"rendered":"My True Ghost Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is a true story. It takes place about two decades ago in the second-floor apartment of a two-family home. The stairs led from the front door straight to the living room. In that living room was the family computer, a big, clunky desktop job with a dial-up connection to AOL because that\u2019s how we rolled in those days. (Remember the ubiquitous AOL discs? Open a box of cereal, there\u2019s an AOL disc inside. Go to the Post Office, have an AOL disc. I\u2019m not kidding.) Anyway, when seated at the computer, the user\u2019s back would be to the door through which people would enter the house.<\/span><\/p>\n

In those day, I had three small children and my wife worked some nights as a mikvah attendant. On this particular night, my kids were asleep, my wife was at work and I was on the computer. From my peripheral vision, I saw my wife enter. She stood over my shoulder as I worked on the computer but she didn\u2019t say anything. Without turning from my work, I asked her, \u201cHow did it go?\u201d She replied, \u201c<\/span>Mwah wah, wah wah, mwah wah wahwah<\/span><\/i>.\u201d I\u2019m not kidding. Like one of the adults from the old <\/span>Peanuts<\/span><\/i> specials is the best I can do to describe it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Her response being unintelligible, I turned around, saying, \u201cWhat was that? I didn\u2019t underst\u2013\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

I stopped mid-sentence because there was nobody there. Which was weird because I definitely saw a figure in my peripheral vision <\/span>and<\/span><\/i> I heard a voice, garbled though it was.<\/span><\/p>\n

I checked my kids\u2019 rooms and they were all asleep in bed. I called the mikvah and my wife answered, still at work, a good 20-minute drive away. (Some of you may be incredulous that I didn\u2019t call her cell phone, and maybe she was nearby, pranking me by pretending to still be at work. Well, remember that this was 20+ years ago. Cell phones certainly existed but it was not something that every person necessarily carried.) So this was a little freaky because there was nobody there but me and I definitely heard and saw <\/span>something<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had a great aunt who had died several days before this incident. My wife suggested that it was she that appeared to me. I discounted this theory for two reasons. The first is, I doubt that an aunt with whom I was never close, whom I hadn\u2019t seen in years, would come to me rather than her own children or grandchildren in order to say \u201c<\/span>Mwah wah, wah wah, mwah wah wahwah<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The second reason I discounted this hypothesis? I don\u2019t believe in ghosts. <\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, sure, I believe in an afterlife but I don\u2019t believe in restless spirits wandering the Earth on unfulfilled missions. I didn\u2019t believe it then and I don\u2019t believe it now. My experience with an unexplained apparition hasn\u2019t changed that.<\/span><\/p>\n

See also\u00a0What is the Jewish View on Ghosts?<\/a> by\u00a0Rabbi Gil Student<\/strong><\/p>\n

Someone who believes in ghosts might use this experience to support their argument. \u201cI know there are ghosts,\u201d this person might say, \u201cbecause I\u2019ve seen one!\u201d But I\u2019m a confirmed non-believer so what benefit do I have in sharing an inexplicable experience that undermines my own position?<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just that: I didn\u2019t let an inexplicable experience change my beliefs.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a huge difference between ignoring facts and not letting unanswered questions destroy your faith. Let\u2019s take a famous example: when people started unearthing dinosaur fossils in the 19<\/span>th<\/span> century. The discovery of such things posed a challenge to the most literal understanding of Genesis, with the result that people responded in one of three ways:<\/span><\/p>\n