First in Lichtenstadt, Then in Nikolsburg

Rav Mordechai Banet was the Rav of Nikolsburg. In the last years of his life he fell ill and moved to Lichtenstadt, near Carlsbad, for treatment. When he passed away, the people of Lichtenstadt buried him quickly, because they wanted him to remain in their town. When Nikolsburg heard, there was an uproar, until the question of whether to move him came before the Chasam Sofer.

In his teshuvah, the Chasam Sofer gave three reasons why it was permitted to reinter Rav Mordechai in Nikolsburg, even though it was very unpopular, because it gave non-Jews an excuse to move bodies as they pleased. He also wrote that the people of Nikolsburg should not be believed when they said Rav Mordechai had wanted his body returned. Rav Mordechai had said in his lifetime that anyone who needed salvation after his passing should come to his kever and his tefillos would be answered, and the Chasam Sofer reasoned that this gave the people of Nikolsburg a motive to bring him back near them.

While he was writing the teshuvah, the Chasam Sofer fell asleep. In his dream, Rav Mordechai appeared to him and said that he did in fact want to return to Nikolsburg, but Hashem wanted him buried in Lichtenstadt for a reason. When he was a young man, a shidduch with a certain girl had been broken off. She suffered embarrassment, and later she married the Rav of Lichtenstadt. With the help and tefillos of the Rav of Lichtenstadt, it was determined that the only kapparah Rav Mordechai could have was to be buried next to her in the cemetery for six months. And so it was. After six months his holy body was raised and reburied in Nikolsburg.