The Broken Shidduch

It is told that a chassid from Warsaw, whom everyone nicknamed Der Kleine Moisheleh, made a shidduch for his daughter. Soon afterward they discovered that the chosson had a lung disease, and when the kallah learned of it, she refused to continue. Her father received permission from a bais din to dissolve the shidduch. But when the chosson heard of it, he suffered such great distress that his anguish made his illness worse. He declined from day to day, until at last he died, sick and heartbroken.

Afterward the former kallah also fell ill. As she lay in her sickbed she complained that the departed spirit of her former chosson kept watch at her side, constantly urging her to follow him and saying that he was taking her to court, to the Bais Din Shel Maalah, the Heavenly Court. This continued for some days and her condition worsened, until her father was worried and the doctors began to despair. Her father traveled to Sochatchov to the Avnei Nezer.

When the Rebbe heard how the departed chosson stood by her bed and summoned her to a din Torah in Shomayim, he grew excited. "The halachah is that whoever sues in bais din must follow the defendant to the defendant's own bais din, in his own place. Go home and tell your daughter in my name that if the departed chosson returns, she should tell him that in Sochatchov they say that if he has any claim against her, it need not go before the Bais Din Shel Maalah. Let him bring her to a din Torah right here with me in Sochatchov. She should repeat this to him three times."

She did exactly this, and after the third time he never returned. She recovered and never saw him again.