The Pouch and the Ban

It is told of Rav Gershon that in Eretz Yisroel, in Tzfas as it is remembered, he was close to the city's rav, a Sephardic chacham who loved him. One week Rav Gershon mentioned that he had no money and had to borrow for Shabbos expenses.

On a bitter cold day he put on a coat lined with cotton and went to daven. Afterward he walked up and down the beis medrash taking snuff, and a small pouch slipped from the coat. The chacham picked it up, felt five coins through the cloth, and could not open it. Five coins, he thought, and Rav Gershon says he has nothing. In that land a false word was taken very seriously. The two argued, each insisting he spoke the truth, until the chacham swore that Rav Gershon had lied, and Rav Gershon, in his zeal, put him under a ban.

The chacham went home and gathered the community. They felt the pouch and agreed there were five coins in it, and they came to Rav Gershon. He asked why the chacham had not opened it before swearing. Because he could not, they said. Then he should have torn it, said Rav Gershon, for the coins were foreign and not used there. They were only silver, like the silver vessels he owned. The chacham was appeased, and the ban was lifted.

Then a letter came from the Baal Shem Tov. He had seen Rav Gershon judged in a heavenly court, he wrote, and Heaven had wished to sentence him for boldness against the rav. A voice had answered that he had acted out of zeal for Hashem, yet the decree was that he would lose his sight for a month. From now on, the letter said, he should be less harsh.