One Friday afternoon a stranger appeared on the doorstep of the famous tzadik, Reb Yitzchak Isaac of Vitebsk, asking him to arrange a "din Torah" (a session of the Jewish court). It was already after midday and Reb Yitzchak Isaac was about to go to the bathhouse in preparation for the holy Sabbath. "Must the matter be attended to right now?" he asked the visitor. "Can't it wait until Sunday morning?"
"I am a melamed," answered the man. "I teach little children from early in the morning until late at night, with a short break in the middle of the day for lunch. On Friday I teach only until noon. Today is the only opportunity I have to come to you!" he pleaded.
"But where is the other party in the lawsuit?" the Reb Yitzchak Isaac.
"He is already here," the man answered. "I wish to bring a din Torah against the Master of the Universe."
Reb Yitzchak Isaac went back inside and put on the fur hat he wore only on Shabbat, Yom Tov and other solemn occasions. He sat on his judicial chair and prepared himself to hear the case. "You, obviously, are the plaintiff. Please state your complaints," he said.
The melamed got straight to the point. "Our Sages teach in the Gemara and Midrash that there are three partners in the creation of man," he began. "My wife and I have a daughter who has, thank G-d, reached marriageable age, but we do not have enough money to find her a proper match. The third partner, however, has unlimited funds, but He refuses to part with His wealth. That is the essence of my grievance," the man concluded.
Reb Yitzchak Isaac shut his eyes and thought the matter over. After a few minutes of reflection he pronounced his judgment. "You are right," he told the man. "You have won the case." The thankful melamed went home to prepare for Shabbat.
The following Sunday, when the melamed returned home during his lunch break, he found an elaborate carriage with several footmen waiting in front of his house. His concerns were somewhat allayed when he learned why they had come: On the same block where the melamed and his family dwelled lived a gentile boy who had recently been employed in the landowner's household. For almost a month the landowner's wife had suffered from a terrible toothache. None of the dentists they brought to her had been successful in alleviating her pain. When the servant boy saw the woman's suffering, he mentioned to the landowner that there was Jewish woman on his block who was able to "whisper" a toothache away (a popular folk remedy at the time). He suggested that the melamed's wife be brought to the great estate to attempt a cure.
At first the landowner just laughed at the boy's absurd suggestion, but after exhausting every other alternative he agreed to send for the Jewish woman. The melamed's wife was summoned to the great mansion. The landowner's wife was beside herself in agony. Her cries and moans were pitiful to hear. After a short rest from the long journey the melamed's wife was brought to the suffering woman and asked to perform her cure. She "whispered" over the affected teeth and the painful toothache was miraculously gone.
The landowner and his wife were extremely grateful to the Jewish woman who had brought relief to their entire household. They asked her what she would accept as payment. "My husband is a teacher of small children," the woman answered. "His salary does not even begin to pay our many expenses. Our oldest daughter is of marriageable age, but we haven't the money with which to make a wedding."
"How much money would you need to marry her off?" asked the landowner.
"Five hundred rubles for the dowry, 300 for food, and another 200 for the wedding celebration," the woman said.
Without another word, the landowner gratefully paid the astonished woman the entire sum. And when, as an afterthought, the melamed's wife mentioned that she was also in need of pillows and linens, the landowner instructed his servants to fill his entire carriage with household furnishings and other gifts as tokens of his deep appreciation.
In such a manner was Reb Yitzchak Isaac's verdict carried out.
