Messenger

The Story of Moses & Fromet

Posted on 10/13/2009 at 8:11:25 AM

33 year old Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of the well-known German composer, was far from being handsome. Along with a rather short stature, he had a grotesque hunchback. In 1762 he visited a merchant in Hamburg who had a lovely daughter named Fromet Guggenheim. Moses fell hopelessly in love with her. But Fromet was repulsed by his misshapen appearance.

When it came time for him to leave, Moses gathered his courage and climbed the stairs to her room to take one last opportunity to speak with her. Upon seeing him she burst into tears.

“Is it my hump?” he asked.

“Yes.” she hesitantly replied.

She was a vision of Heavenly beauty, but he felt deep sadness by her refusal to look at him. After several attempts at conversation, Moses shyly asked, “Do you believe marriages are made in Heaven?”

“Yes,” she answered, still looking at the floor. “And do you?”

“Yes I do,” he replied. “You see, in Heaven at the birth of each boy, the Lord announces which girl he will marry. When I was born, my future bride was pointed out to me. Then the Lord added,” “But your wife will be humpbacked.”

“Right then and there I called out, ‘Oh Lord, a humpbacked woman would be a tragedy. Please, Lord, give me the hump and let her be fair and beautiful.’”

Then Fromet looked up into his eyes and was stirred by some deep memory. She reached out and gave Mendelssohn her hand and later became his devoted wife. They had six remarkable children together.

“When love has blended and molded two beings
in an angelic and sacred union,
they have found the secret of life;
henceforth they are only the two terms of the same destiny,
the two wings of one mind.”
(Victor Hugo)