When the grandsons of Rav Pinchos Koretzer, who ran the Slovita Press, were libeled and falsely accussed, many tried to prove their innocence, that all the accussations against them were false, to no avail.
Finally the authorities agreed that if three prominent Jewish leaders and rabbis would testify as to the innocence of the Shapira brothers of Slovita then they would be exonerated and cleared.
One of the selected leaders was none other than Rav Pinchos Koretzer's prominent disciple, Rav Raphael of Bershad, who inherited his rebbe's penchant for truth and emes at all costs. So much so that they nicknamed Reb Raphael der Emesser! They used to say that he was so truthful and so careful not to utter even a doubtful truth or a possible falsehood that if for example it was raining outside, and you asked him once he came in doors if it's raining out there? He would reply: "When I was outside it was raining." Since perhaps in the interim when he came in doors it had maybe ceased to rain, therefore he could not answer in the present tense to something he could not directly see right now!
This was the very same elder chassid who had been bentshed by none other than the holy Baal Shem Tov's blessing for arichas yomim - a long life. (Kovetz HaTamim VIII Letter 284). When he was asked to come testify on behalf of Rav Pinchos Shapira he did not know what to do. On the one hand it was a matter of life and death and therefore fell under the heter for pikuach nefesh. On the other hand, although he was sure that Rav Pinchos was innocent and that the libel was a fabricated falsehood, he could not bring himself to say with certainty an out right lie, that he had personally witnessed this innocence when the truth was that he was sure of it but had never seen so himself.
Initially he agreed to testify, yet as the date approached he began to daven to Hashem: Master of the World! I have never let a false word cross my lips, and I have never uttered a lie my entire life! I have never testified to a certainty that I cannot verify, nor have I ever resolved a doubt that I myself did not know its veracity! Ribono Shel Olam! I ask of You please, with every expression of pleasing I plead, please take away the blessing for long life so that I not be forced to say something that I myself did not witness!" His prayers were answered, the very next day he passed away, and when they needed his testimony he was no longer among the living. . .and since Rav Raphael's testimony was one of the three, the entire matter was null and void and the judgment of the Shapira brothers of Slovita was a sentence of torture and exile. (Shmuos VeSippurim Volume I pg 243)
