Rav Yechezkel Landau, zt”l, the Rav of Prague, was known by the name of his Sefer Noda B’Yehudah. Two rich men once came to see him for an unusual Din Torah.
What happened was that these two men lived in the same building and were good neighbors. One day, a poor musician came and stood at the door of the building and began to play some music, in order to earn a little income from donations.
The two rich men, impressed and moved by the music, began to argue, each one saying, “He’s playing for me!” “No! He’s playing for me!” They decided to go see the Noda B’Yehudah, and ask him to decide who the musician was playing for.
When they approached the Rav, they each gave him 20 gold coins for spending his time to help them, and he began to hear their strange arguments. After hearing the complaints, the Noda B’Yehudah smiled at them and said, “It was not for either of you that the musician played, but for me— so that I could merit earning 40 gold coins!”
