Rabbi Meir Shapira told his students the following amazing story. Rabbi Shlomo Luria had a student whose wife died in her prime, not having left behind any children. The man mourned her for seven days but when he later persisted in his black gloom and deep depression, people took note. The Maharshal summoned the man to him and asked what was bothering him.
"Just before my wife died, she made me promise her never to marry again," he wept. "But I am still young and have never been blessed with children..." The Rabbi reassured the man that it was permissible to marry, which he did shortly after.
Shortly after his marriage, however, the man suddenly died. All of Lublin seethed with the news. As soon as he heard of the death, the Maharshal summoned the Chevra Kadisha (Jewish burial society) to him. "Prepare him for burial as usual," he instructed, "and lay him inside the grave. But do nothing further. Just notify me and I will come."
His instructions were filled to the letter. When the body had been lowered into the grave, the Chevra Kadisha sent for the Maharshal. He came to the cemetery, wrote out a note and placed it in the dead man's hand.
"Shalom! Peace unto you, Heavenly hosts! How can this be possible? Does not a positive commandment of the Torah overrule a negative one? I decree in the name of the Torah that you return this man to me!" The Maharshal signed the letter, then told the people to leave the grave uncovered and leave the cemetery.
After about an hour had elapsed the entire city was aware that something most unusual had happened. The young man, just laid in the newly dug grave, was suddenly seen walking in his shrouds along the city streets as if nothing had happened. People could talk of nothing else. The Maharshal's greatness reached higher levels that it had ever before, even in a community that revered him highly.
But this was not the end of the story. The young man could not find another woman willing to marry him. It was no simple undertaking to consent to wed one that had cheated the grave. Seeing this development, the Maharshal took further action. He called upon the Angel of forgetfulness to obliterate all memory of this incident in the minds of the Lublin community. And that is exactly what happened. After a few days people stopped talking about the matter and forgot it had ever occurred. The young man went about his way as if nothing unusual had happened and in due time remarried and fathered children who studied Torah and continued in the Jewish tradition.
