Mordechai Lipson relates in his Midor Dor (vol. 3, p. 117, no. 2086) the following about Rabbi Yoshe Ber Soloveichik of Brisk:
A few days before Passover a man called upon him and asked whether he could use milk instead of wine for the four cups of the Seder.
“Are you ailing?” Rabbi Yoshe Ber inquired.
“Thank G-d, I am well, “ the man replied, adding in a lower voice. “Wine is quite expensive. This year I cannot afford it.”
Rabbi Yoshe Ber turned to his Rebbetzin, asking her to give twenty-five Roubles to the man.
“Rabbi,” the man protested. “I have come here to inquire about the law and not to ask for a donation.”
“This money is a loan,” Rabbi Yoshe Ber sought to put him at ease. “When with G-d’s help your situation will improve, you will repay the loan.”
After the man left, the Rebbetzin asked Rabbi Yoshe Ber why he had given him such a large sum of money. Wine for four cups costs only two or three Roubles.
“Women don’t understand,” Rabbi Yoshe Ber replied. “Didn’t you hear the man ask whether he could drink milk instead of wine at the Seder? If he had prepared a full Pesach meal, with fish and meat, he wouldn’t be permitted to drink milk. From his question I inferred that not only did he have no money for wine, but he lacked other Seder needs as well.”
Different writers tell the same or a similar story about other famous rabbis.
In Abraham’s Ittinga’s Daat Zekenim (Sanok, 1911, pp. 36-37) the above is told about Rabbi Chaim Volozhin.
Chaim Bloch in his German Das Juedische Volk in seiner Anekdote (Berlin, 1931, pp. 63-64) relates it about Rabbi Akiva Eiger.
In Shmuel Friedman’s Nachalei Devash (Lwow, 1929, p. 5b), Rabbi Eliya Chaim Meisel, Lodz’ famous rabbi, is the hero of the story.
According to Menashe Unger in his Chassidus un Yom Tov (New York, 1958, pp. 232-233) Sanzer Chasidim tell the story about their Rebbe, Rabbi Chaim Halberstam, author of Divrei Chaim. (Unger adds that the same story is also told about a non-Chassidic Gaon, but he gives no name.)
Following is another Passover story from Lipson’s collection Midor Dor (ibid., p. 119, no 2093):
Rabbi Mendel of Linsky, Galicia (the father of Naftali Zvi of Ropshitz) appealed in his Shabbath Hagadol sermon for Me’ot Chittim (lit. “wheat money,” Passover aid) for the poor.
“It is customary for rabbis to elucidate in that Shabbath Hagadol sermons a difficult halakha in Maimonides Mishne Torah,” Rabbi Mendel opened his speech.
“I too will do so,” he continued. “Maimonides rules that every Jew, even the most poor, must eat Matzah on Passover. Maimonides also declares that it is forbidden to steal, and he is quite strict about this. So we have a difficult problem. What should the poor do on Passover? They have not money for Matzoth. They are also not allowed to steal. There is only one solution: The rich must provide the poor with Matzoth; they much contribute generously for Me’ot Chittim.”
In Imrei Tzadikkim (Lwow, 1929, p. 18) by Abraham Ittinga, the same story is told about Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh of Liszko, Hungary.
(Linsk in Galicia was also call Lisko, the same as Liszko in Hungary. The similarity of the town’s name might have been the cause of the same story being told about two different people.)
By Tovia Preschel
American Jewish Times
March 1990