By Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn
Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim Meisel, the Lodzer Rav was once confronted by two hysterical women who came to his home to seek a settlement of their argument.
The two women shared the same clothesline on which they hung their laundry out to dry. The line was stretched across a courtyard, from a hook outside one woman’s window to a second hook outside the other woman’s window. The two would normally take turns using the line, but this time there seemed to have been some confusion, and both women were claiming ownership of the laundry which had been hung out to dry.
Unable to resolve their argument, they decided to bring the whole load of laundry to the home of the Rav, and let him determine its ownership.
Called in His Wife to Help Solve the Dilemma
R’ Eliyahu Chaim listened to the arguments of both women. After listening carefully, he instructed the women to leave the laundry on his table in a huge pile and go out of the room. He then called in his own wife, the rebbetzin.
“Do me a favor,” he requested her, “and please bring in a large batch of our laundry. First mark each item in a secret way so that the mark is not easily discernible, and then mix all of it together with the laundry that is on the table.”
The rebbetzin did as her husband requested, and brought in a recently dried load of laundry, which she marked carefully. She showed the Rav exactly where every item was marked and then she mixed her laundry together with the pile of laundry that already was on the Rav’s table. The rebbetzin left the room through one door and the Rav called in one of the two women who had been waiting outside a second door.
Asked the First Woman to Pick Out Her Clothes from the Pile
“Please select from this pile the laundry that is yours,” the Rav said. Carefully and diligently the woman picked out a shirt from this side, a sock from the second side, making sure to choose only those items she was positive were hers. She continued to select a good deal of what was on the table, but not one item that belonged to the rebbetzin. The Rav told her to put everything back in the pile and mix it all up again. Then he called in the second woman.
The Rav told her, as well, to choose the laundry that was hers. As she picked up each item, she announced in a defiant tone that it was unquestionably hers. She went through the entire bundle of laundry, exclaiming that each article - even those put in by the rebbetzin - was hers. The Rav realized that this was the woman who had been lying, for she was taking items that were definitely not hers.
The Final Disposition
He then called back the first woman and told her to select once again what was hers. The rebbetzin then came in and took the marked laundry that was her own. And the lying woman finally left with what was really hers - a very small amount of the laundry. (Around the Maggid’s Table)
Excerpted from the ArtScroll book – “Around the Maggid’s Table.”
