Go Gezunterheit

When the Shaagas Aryeh was appointed Rav of Metz, one wealthy merchant, Yehuda Charif, refused to sign the document appointing him. He based his refusal on the fact that the Shaagas Aryeh had served only as Rav of Volozhin, a small town, and as rosh yeshiva of Minsk. How could those positions compare to the great city of Metz?

One day Yehuda Charif's daughter lost her sanity. She became so ill that the doctors knew no cure, and the family suffered greatly. With medicine having given up on her, Yehuda Charif turned to any possible source of help. Eventually he heard of a Baal Shem who was supposed to be able to cure anyone. When this impostor came to Metz, the Shaagas Aryeh, who was well acquainted with this man and his kind, sent the fake Baal Shem packing and chased him out of town.

Yehuda Charif was incensed. He already disliked the Shaagas Aryeh and held a grudge against him, and now the Rav had chased away his daughter's possible cure. He decided that enough was enough, and he sent his poor, sick daughter to the Shaagas Aryeh. She was disturbed, and she would sing, dance and make a disturbance at all hours of the day. Her noise so disturbed the Shaagas Aryeh that he could not learn Torah. He turned to her gently and said softly and kindly, "My daughter, why are you acting so crazy? For how long will you be this way? Please go home gezunterheit" (which literally means "go home healthy"). And so she did. She went home healed and healthy, sound in body and mind.

"Please, Daddy," she said to her amazed father, "please change my tattered and ripped dress." Yehuda Charif fell before the Shaagas Aryeh, begging the Rav's forgiveness and asking to be allowed to add his name to the certificate of appointment. From then on his great affection for the Shaagas Aryeh knew no bounds, and they became great friends. He followed the Rav's piskei halacha and lent his hand to help the new Rav of Metz.