Lessons from Our Sages Through the Ages from the Pages
R’ Chaim Volozhiner once presided over a Din Torah (Rabbinical court case) in which one of the litigants was a Talmid Chacham we’ll call R’ Berel, and R’ Chaim ruled against him. Berel was incensed. Some time later, R’ Chaim had to travel out of town and approached R’ Berel. He explained that he had a pending case that he would be unable to adjudicate and asked the Talmid Chacham to fill in for him. R’ Berel agreed and conducted the Din Torah.
When R’ Chaim came back, he asked about R’ Berel’s ruling, and agreed that it had been correct. He then showed him how the same principles applied in the earlier case, and were the basis for his ruling against Berel. Suddenly, R’ Berely no longer felt resentment about his loss.
After R’ Chaim passed away, R’ Berel happened to meet one of the litigants in the case he had judged, who let him in on the secret that R’ Chaim had engaged him and his “adversary” for the mock Din Torah for reasons unknown.
Berel well understood R’ Chaim’s reason for doing it, and he also recognized how important it was to R’ Chaim to remove the resentment he had felt when he was blinded by his own bias.
