{Guest Columnist, Sima Leah, is a freelance writer, living in Brooklyn}
Foreshadowing is a literary technique found in many works of fiction. The omniscient author uses it to keep us on our toes; to put us on notice that something dramatic may soon happen. Prepare for action!
Sometimes it seems that foreshadowing occurs in real life too. Perhaps, here and there, the True Omniscient One cracks open a window for us to see what the future has in store.
Let’s examine a few extraordinary cases that seem to demonstrate real-life foreshadowing:
Ward Hill Lamon was a former law partner, bodyguard and close friend of our 16th President , Abraham Lincoln. In his writings published in the 1880s, Lamon recounted that in April of 1864, Lincoln told him and several others of a very disturbing dream. In the dream, Lincoln “awoke” in the family quarters of the Executive Mansion, heard distant sobbing and walked downstairs. He saw a corpse lying in state in the East Room, surrounded by a grieving throng. Curious, he asked one of the onlookers what had transpired. The person tearfully informed Lincoln—that the President had been assassinated!
According to Lamon, Lincoln had spoken of his dreadful dream 14 days before he was murdered at Ford’s Theater. A case of bizarre real-life foreshadowing? No one knows for sure, but Lamon claimed that the story was based on solid notes he took at the time.
Here is another peculiar case of what appears to be real-life foreshadowing.
At the turn of 19th Century, author Morgan Robertson published a novel entitled Futility. He depicted a huge steamship, reportedly unsinkable, which struck an iceberg and subsequently sank—in the month of April. Strangely, the name of the ship was…the Titan. The novel, published back in 1898, somehow seemed to foreshadow the horrific events that would also take place in April—fourteen years in the future—when the so-called unsinkable RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in icy waters off Newfoundland with tremendous loss of life.
Finally, consider the following:
Last month marked the 78th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster. Like the Titanic, the Hindenburg was a luxurious mode of transport for crossing the Atlantic. Instead of steaming through the seas, however, the Hindenburg was a hydrogen filled rigid zeppelin, capable of flying great distances. She crossed the Atlantic from Frankfurt to New York in half the time of the fastest steamer—in a mere 2 1/2 days. Unlike today’s airplanes, often cramped and uncomfortable, the Hindenburg had sleeping cabins and a dining room, sumptuous food and a pleasant, quiet ride. She even carried a piano for musical entertainment. And always there were breathtaking panoramas to enjoy from her large promenade windows.
The Hindenburg was almost as massive as the Titanic: 804 feet long and filled with over 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen providing her buoyancy. At that time, there was only one airfield in the New York City vicinity that was huge enough to handle an airship of her titanic size: That airfield was located in Lakehurst, New Jersey. One may visit this huge navy airfield even today.
On that fateful day in May of 1937, landing lines had already been dropped as the crew prepared to secure the Hindenburg to the Lakehurst mooring tower and conclude her 63rd successful flight. Suddenly—without warning—a huge explosion and fireball spread from the rear of the airship and swiftly engulfed the entire zeppelin. Astonishingly, within a mere 32 short seconds, the magnificent Hindenburg was reduced to ash and a mass of melted girders. Many of her crew and passengers perished in the flaming holocaust. At the airfield, several reporters recorded the dreadful event; the black and white grainy footage can be viewed to this day.
Now here are two curious facts that may make your spine tingle:
Fact 1: The Hindenburg was the pride of 1930’s Nazi Germany; She flew with two gargantuan 50 foot swastikas on each side of her rear tail fins; and
Fact 2: Lakehurst airfield is just a few minutes’ drive from today’s Bais Medrash Govoha, Lakewood, New Jersey.
Another fact:
The Nazis are long dead and gone; our institutions of Torah are alive and thriving.
So might one venture to say that the events surrounding the Nazi’s Hindenburg disaster and its fiery destruction at Lakehurst, New Jersey are another curious case of real-life foreshadowing?
Very, very, very eerie indeed.