Rav Eliyahu Chaim Meisel of Lodz zt"l
הרב אליהו חיים בן משה מייזעל זצ"ל
Iyar 14 , 5672
Stories of Rav Eliyahu Chaim Meisel of Lodz zt"l
“Be slow and cautious to judge” (Avos 1:1)
Rav Ovadia Yosef used to illustrate our Mishna using the following story:
A merchant approached Rav Eliyohu Chaim Meisel of Lodz and complained, “I came from Lomza to conduct business here in Lodz and stayed at a local inn. When I headed to the train station, I realized that I had forgotten my wallet and watch back at my hotel room under my pillow. However, when I came back to the hotel, the proprietor claimed he did not find them. Rav, I know I left them under my pillow – what am I to do?”
Rav Eliyohu Chaim knew that the innkeeper was untrustworthy when it came to money matters, and that his reputation was none too good. He called him in and presented the arguments and accusations of the visiting merchant, but the innkeeper stood his ground and emphatically declared his honesty. Taking out his silver snuffbox and taking a pinch, he declared, “Rav, I tell you he made a mistake. I didn’t find any wallet or watch in his room.”
“May I have a pinch of snuff?” asked the Rav.
“Of course,” agreed the innkeeper.
As the Rav took the silver snuffbox and began to take snuff, he asked the two litigants two wait outside while he deliberated, and he called in his attendant. “Quick, hurry down to the inn, give the innkeeper’s wife this silver snuffbox and say, “Your husband asked me to pick up the watch and the wallet he found in the room. Here is his silver snuffbox as proof that he sent me.”
The attendant ran off to fulfill his errand and soon came back with the watch and the wallet. Rav Eliyohu Chaim called in the merchant and asked for identifying simonim on the watch, how much money was in the wallet and in what denominations. He then returned them to their rightful owner, called in the innkeeper, returned his snuffbox and sent him home. (Anaf Etz Avos p. 4)
“Rav Shimon ben Gamliel said: The world stand on three things – on judgment, truth and peace” (Avos 1:18).
Rav Ovadia Yosef used to illustrate the judgment and justice in our Mishna using the following stories:
There once came before Rav Eliyohu Chaim Meisel and his court two women who were neighbors and had a dispute. They had both laundered their families’ respective clothing and hung out the wash to dry in the yard. Thieves passed by and stole all the laundry hanging on the line from one family and left the wash on the second laundry line untouched. It so happened that the laundry was white and basically identical, so that each neighbor claimed that hers had been spared and the other’s stolen!
“Your clothes were stolen and mine have been left behind!”
“No, it’s yours that were stolen and mine that were spared!”
Rav Eliyohu Chaim asked that the clothes be brought before him. When the laundry was brought in, he asked the ladies to leave the room. Once the neighbors had departed, he called in his own wife and asked her to add some of their own white laundry identical to the clothes laid out. He then called in one of the ladies and asked her, “Can you recognize which articles of clothing are yours among this pile of whites?”
“Yes, Rebbe, I can,” answered the woman.
“Be careful to select only your clothing and not to make a mistake,” he warned her.
She began to select from the laundry. “This one is mine, and this, this other one, no, that’s not mine.” And so she selected all her laundry and left the Rav’s on the other pile. The Rav thanked her, asked her to step out again, called the other neighbor and asked her to do the same.
“This is mine, and this, and this one, in fact they are all mine!” the second lady declared.
The Rav rebuked her sharply. “You are not telling the truth – this laundry belongs to your neighbor!”
Another case that came before Rav Eliyohu Chaim of Lodz was that of a man who found a wallet: “About a month ago, as I walked down the street I found a wallet and picked it up. At home I counted the money and discovered that it contained a thousand rubles,” he told the Rav. “The next day I read in the paper that the Polish nobleman had lost his wallet and offered a reward for its return. I promptly returned the wallet but the Poritz grew enraged and yelled at me, ‘Jewish thief! This wallet contained thousands of rubles and you give it back with only one thousand!’ He began cursing and threatening me, and now he has sued me in secular court. Rav, what am I to do?! Please help!”
The Rav calmed him down and asked if he had a lawyer to represent his case. “Yes, I do,” answered the finder.
“Please ask him to meet with me,” requested the Rav.
The day of the trial arrived and in the court stood the nobleman, who stated his case before the judge. “I lost my wallet containing thousands of rubles and this Jew found it and returned it with only one thousand rubles!”
The Jew tried to defend himself and declared that the wallet he had found contained only one thousand rubles. The defense attorney tried to defend his client by presenting a logical argument: “Your Honor, if someone finds a lost object and returns it, why would he proceed to steal some of the money? He could just as easily have kept the entire wallet and no one would have been any the wiser!”
“Your Highness,” the defense attorney turned to the Poritz, “can you swear that you lost a wallet containing thousands of rubles?”
“Of course!” declared the nobleman and at once he swore to the effect before the judges and took an oath.
“Your Honors, surely the Poritz’s oath must stand and be accepted as truth. Well, then, this surely proves that the wallet my client found must be in fact a different wallet and not the one belonging to the Poritz at all. It is logical and sound to assume that he who returns a lost object is a truthful, honest man. Thieves and cheats wouldn’t return the money at all, and if this wallet only contained a thousand rubles it is reasonable to assume it is not the wallet that the Poritz lost – but a different wallet! I ask the Poritz to return the wallet to my client, since his own oath proves that it is not his!”
The Poritz’s face flushed. The judges concluded that he must have lied under oath and, not daring or wishing to accuse him of having sworn falsely, they accepted the attorney’s line of defense and ruled in favor of the Jew. The wallet containing one thousand rubles was returned to the Jew, he was released, the case closed. Rav Eliyohu Chaim Meisel’s advice had brought about justice once again. (Anaf Etz Avos p. 65–66)