A PRETTY young woman came in to the rabbi.
“Bless me, Rabbi!” she implored.
The rabbi spread his hands over her head and blessed her, but he took care not to touch her head while doing so.
“Why don’t you place your hands on my head?” she asked in surprise. “Blessings from a distance aren’t as fruitful as blessings from near.”
“How do you light the candles on Friday night?” asked the rabbi. “Do you recite the prayer with your hands touching the flame?”
“Of course not-I’d burn my hands!” answered the young woman.
“Believe me, it’s no different with me!” said the rabbi smiling. “Where I to lay my hands on your head, I might also burn them!”An excerpt from A Treasury of Jewish Folklore. Copyright 1948 by Crown Publishers. “The Laying On of Hands”, page 170.
The story immediately begins by describing the woman as simply “a pretty young woman”. The minds eye is left to decide what that may mean. By the end of the story after reading how prudently careful and modest the rabbi has to act towards her the young womans beauty is magnified a hundred fold with no need for further description.