The Voice that kills/The Voice that heals (Part 3)-the Case of X
At certain points in my life I read many mystery books including those old Hardy Boys (and shhhh, some Nancy Drew who by the way had a higher IQ than both Frank and Joe combined),and later the Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes, and well as almost all the books written by Agatha Cristie.
This Agatha Cristie had a simple clear style of writing yet it was a writing of a genius.
Her book “Curtain” is the greatest of her greats, competing only with perhaps “And then there were none”
This book was written in the 1940’s, put in a vault, and not published until the 1970’s after her death.
She had created a character Hercule Poirot a Belgian detective and this was his last case as an old infirm man but with a brain that was as sharp as ever.
He goes with his friend who had helped him with a lot of his cases, a man called Hastings
They go to this Hotel called “Styles Court” where many years ago Hercules Poirot with his friend Hastings solves their first case.
They are back, years and years later, the last case of Hercule Poirot
There is a evil deadly demented murderer in Hotel Styles.
Poirot gives Hasting 5 newspaper clippings
5 murders
The motive seemed to be clear and the murder suspect seems to be the clear culprit-5 different murderers—yet Poirot tells Hasting this
“I intend, Hastings, to be very careful in what I say. Let me put it this way. There is a certain person---X. In none of these cases did X (apparently) have any motive in doing away with the victim. In one case as far as I have been able to find out,X was actually two hundred miles away when the crime was committed, Nevertheless, I will tell you this. X was on intimate terns with Etherton (case 1),X lived for a time in the same village as Riggs(case 2)X was acquainted with Mrs Bradley (case 3),I have a picture of X and Freda Clay walking together on the street(case 4) ,and X was near the house when old Matthew Litchfield died(case 5)
X is in this house.
A murder will be committed here
Poirot knows the identity of X
But he will not tell Hastings who X is
“Why not’?
Because you are the same old Hastings. A speaking open face.staring at X with your mouth wide open. No we must be very incognito, secretive and when we pounce, we pounce
I will not go through the whole book. Basically there are murders and attempted murders and you really don’t know what in the world is going. Hastings himself almost kills a creep who is chasing after his daughter
After I knew the solution and read the book again I saw how ingenious the whole book was
The final victim is a guy Norton who is shot in the head.
The coroner rules it self inflicted
The Poirot himself dies, apparently from natural causes
So you are at the end of this book, X is a murderer, we have no idea who he is, Poirot dies.
Did X kill Poirot?
Who is X?
You are at almost the very end of the book and you have no idea
Poirot had left Hastings a box with 2 clues
1-the play Othello by Shakspeare
2-the play “John Ferguson” by St John Ervine with the marker at the third act.
Then months later Poirot’s lawyer sends documents to Hastings
Bottom line this Norton who was shot in the head was X
Who killed Norton who was X?
Hercule Poirot
Because X would never be caught and held accountable by the law
So Poirot who preserved life all his career, was forced to take one at the end of his life.
Now mr yechida realizes that this is a book of fiction
But there are elements that are true so I present it here.
This final revelation from Poirot is addressed to Hastings
“ You complained that I was unfair in my presentation of this case. I withheld from you knowledge that I had myself. That is to say,I refused to tell you the identity of X. That is quite true. I had to do so—though not for the reasons that I advanced. You will see the reason presently.
“And now let us examine this matter of X.I showed you the resume of various cases.
I pointed out to you that in each separate case it seemed quite clear that the person accused, or suspected, had actually committed the crime in question, that there was no “alternate” solution.
I then proceeded to the second important fact-that in each case X had been either on the scene or closely involved.
You then jumped to a deduction that was, paradoxically, both true and false.
You said that X had committed all these murders
But, my friend, the circumstances were such that in each case (or very nearly) only the accused could have done the crime. On the other hand, if so, how account for X?....So we get the curious result that we have here a case of catalysis-a reaction between two substances that takes place only in the presence of a third substance, that third substance apparently taking no part in the reaction and remaining unchanged. That is the position.
I means that where X was present, crimes took place—but X did not actively take part in these crimes
An extraordinary, an abnormal situation!! And I saw that I had come across at last, at the end of my career, the perfect criminal, the criminal had invented such a technique that he COULD NEVER BE CONVICTED OF CRIME.
It is amazing but not new. There were parallels. And here comes in the first of the “clues” I left you.
The play of Othello
For there, magnificently delineated we have the original of X
(truth is, my friends, we know of X in Tanach. Doeg HoAdomi. according to the Midrash ,he hated Dovid, and praised Dovid to Shaul in a way that would put hatred of Dovid in Shaul’s heart. But on the surface it seemed that he was making innocent and even kind comments. We would never know from the words what poison was placed there.
his goes beyond the typical loshon horah because it is much more subtle,very hard to detect and very deadly)
Iago is the perfect murderer.
The deaths of Desdemona, of Cassio—indeed of Othello himself—are all Iago’s crimes, planned by him, carried out by him.And “he” remains “outside” the circle, untouched by suspicion-or could have done so….
Yes, there is there the perfection of the art of murder. Not even a word of Direct suggestion. He is always ,holding others back from violence, refuting with horror suspicions that have not been entertained until he mentions them.
And the same technique is seen in the brilliant third act of John Ferguson.
Every person may have the desire to hurt of kill someone. But you do not do it…
So the art of X is this
Not to suggest the desire,but to break down the normal decent resistance.
It was an art perfected by long practice. X knew the exact word, the exact phrase, the intonation even to suggest and to bring cumulative pressure on a weak spot!!
This is done without the victim suspecting.
It was not hypnotism.-hypnotism would not be successful.
It was something more insidious,more deadly.
IT WAS A MARSHALLING OF THE FORCES OF A HUMAN BEING TO WIDEN A BREACH INSTEAD OF REPAIRING IT.
Your first reaction was a mild suspicion of Norton.
And you are quite right. Norton was the man. You had no reason for your belief except the perfectly sound if not halfhearted suggestion that he was insignificant.There I think you came very close to the truth.
He was the only son of a masterful and bossy woman..slightly lame..did not participate in sports at school.
I could imagine that he began to discover quite young his own power for influencing people. He is a good listener (here yechida adds that even the great potential chesed of truly listening must be used for the right reasons to help, not to destroy)he has a quiet, sympathetic personality. People liked him without ,at the same time noticing him too much. He resented this—and then made use of this. He discovered how ridiculously easy it was, by using the correct words, and supplying the correct stimuli, to influence his fellow creatures.(yechida adds that he has seen the influencing power of mechanchim that misuse their power and ability to literally destroy young boys and girl under their care and influence, some using their power of influence in a subtle way)The only thing necessary was to understand them—to penetrate their thoughts, their secret reactions and wishes
Can you realize, Hastings, that such a discovery might feed a sense of power ?Here he was Stephen Norton, whom everyone liked and despised—and he could make people do things they didn’t want to do ---or (mark this) thought they did not want to do
I can visualize him developing this hobby of his…
Yes, his hobby grows and grows until it becomes a passion, a necessity!!
Norton, the gentle-natured loving man, was a secret sadist.He was an addict of pain ,of mental torture
I will stop here, but he continues to describe how he tracked those 5 victims in those 5 cases and how Norton tracked the victims in this hotel as he knew one of the couples there. Poirot senses the danger so he comes there and at the end kills Norton himself. When you read the book a second time, you see what Norton said and how he acted in his “insignificant” way and you see clearly his art of brilliant manipulation.
Yechida is a little dense and not always too sharp but he had spotted in some of his rebbis and teachers as well as some public speakers as well as several coworkers and supervisors over the years being like this Norton guy but not quite pulling it off .
And then you have true gedolim that use this gift in a very positive way.
For example Hillel was like an Anti X.
And I tried this, being like X, but in the opposite and reverse, to build instead of destroy.
A couple came to my house for Shabbos. It was clear that the wife did not really respect the husband much. Not fighting or anything like that but she didn’t think too much of him at that point.is critical of him. they came to us several times. What do I do. When he walks in the door I give him the biggest smile and a big Shalom Aleichem, I listen to everything he says over Shabbos,I stand up when he comes in the room. I say “very good point you got there” “you handled that correctly” and none of this was phony or acting on my part. I actually found good points in him that I purposely brought out in the open
His wife sees this. How me and my wife and my kids are listening to him(and I tell my kids what an interesting good guy he is).and you see at least for a short while how this guy’s wife is looking at her husband in a different and more positive light.
Not once did I tell the wife openly “see you have here a special husband”. But that is exactly what I “told” her. She just had no idea that when I was talking to her husband I was actually talking to her.(which, by the way is perfectly permissible, even recommended)
Be X in the reverse.
Build quietly what has been breached.
Or make the bond stronger than it is.
The Malochim did this Anti-X thing to Avrohom Avinu.
Innocently and “Naively” asking a simple plain mundane question
“Where is Sarah your wife?” (yes, Sarah a beautiful name, she is YOUR wife)
Avrohom answers “She is in the tent”(you know I always knew this, but now that these guests brought it up it is so clear to me. She is so special, Doing all this chessed in her quiet way, in her tent, chesed with modesty ,a true tzenuah, I really love her)
And when Avrohom is not looking. Rafael, Michoel,and Gavriel give each other a HIGH FIVE and slap each other on the back and say “YESSSS!!IT WORKED!!”
And Avrohom as brilliant as he was, may have not known, may not have realized that the innocent question addressed to him, had behind it, a beautiful poetic powerful that quietly built the connection that tied this great couple together. The couple we all came from.
And here is another thing.
It may be true that during that time that I read “Curtain” by Agatha Christie I should have learned some Chumash or Gemorah.
But now that I did read “Curtain”, I might as well use it the right way.
Become an Anti X.
And a built a beautiful structure that is unseen by almost everyone but absolutely REAL
Upstairs the next stone is being placed and fitted in that Third Bais Hamikdosh that will come down to us soon.
But the world is clueless.
They do not know what great thing we have just done.
The great thing you just did when you turned away from you-know-what.
Anti X.
Influencing the world, infusing it with kedushah and love and healing.
But the world is clueless.
But Hashem whispers from within your heart
The world may not know what you just did for Me
But I know
Thank you
