‘Reb Yitzchak of Vorki had a friend who was a rabbi of
repute, but a great antagonist of Reb Yitzchak's rebbe [spiritual leader], Reb
Simchah Bunem of Pshischah. The friend always had hard words to say about Reb
Simchah, even in the presence of Reb Yitzchak, who never answered a word.
This attitude astonished Reb Yitzchak's followers, who asked
him how he found it possible to hear such harsh language about his rebbe, and
yet to hold his peace.
‘I will tell you about an incident that happened to me,’
replied Reb Yitzchak, ‘and then you will understand. I was once travelling in a
certain city when a stranger approached me, looked at me for a moment, and
exclaimed: 'That's him!' A second man did the same thing soon after, and then a
third, and I had not the slightest notion what it was all about. Then I was
approached by a deserted woman in need of a bill of divorce, an agunah, who was
accompanied by a noisy little group of men, including the three who had
approached me earlier. All in a chorus they showered me with curses and abuses,
the gist of which was: 'You are the man who all these years has left this poor
woman as an agunah!' They were so convinced that they knew who I was, that no
amount of explanation on my part could convince them that I was not the
irresponsible gentleman they were seeking. In the end I had to go along with
them to the local rabbinical court, which accepted my evidence of identity.
‘Now while they were busy abusing me I was not in the
slightest angry at them, because I knew that it was not at me that they were
directing their complaints and their curses. They thought I was her husband,
and had they known me better they would not have abused me. In a word, whatever
they did, they did to someone else.
‘So, too, with this rabbi. When he says unpleasant things
about my rebbe, Reb Simchah Bunem, I don't get excited, because I know that he
talks this way only because he doesn't know my rebbe. If he knew him, he
wouldn't say a thing. In a word, he talks about someone else, not about my
rebbe.’
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