The Truth and Nothing but the Truth

The grandsons of Rav Pinchos of Koretz, who ran the Slovita Press, were once libeled and falsely accused. Many tried to prove that all the accusations against them were false, but to no avail. Finally the authorities agreed that if three prominent Jewish leaders and rabbanim would testify to the innocence of the Shapira brothers of Slovita, the brothers would be cleared.

One of the three chosen was Rav Raphael of Bershad, who had inherited his Rebbe's passion for emes (truth) at all costs. He was nicknamed “der Emesser,” the truthful one. It is told that he was so careful not to utter even a doubtful truth or a possible falsehood that, if he came in from outside and someone asked whether it was raining, he would answer, “When I was outside, it was raining.” Perhaps the rain had stopped in the meantime, and he would not speak in the present tense about something he could not see. He was the same elder chassid who had received a blessing from the Baal Shem Tov for arichas yamim, a long life.

When he was asked to testify on behalf of Rav Pinchos Shapira, he did not know what to do. It was a matter of life and death, which falls under the allowance for pikuach nefesh (saving a life). Yet although he was sure that Rav Pinchos was innocent and that the libel was a fabrication, he could not bring himself to state outright that he had personally witnessed this innocence, when in truth he was sure of it but had never seen it himself. At first he agreed to testify, but as the date approached he began to daven.

“Master of the World, I have never let a false word cross my lips, and I have never told a lie in my entire life. I have never testified with certainty to something I could not verify, and I have never settled a doubt whose truth I did not know. Ribono Shel Olam, I ask of You, please take away the blessing of long life, so that I will not be forced to say something I did not witness.”

His prayer was answered. The very next day he passed away, and when his testimony was needed he was no longer among the living. Since his testimony was one of the three, the entire arrangement came to nothing, and the Shapira brothers of Slovita were left with a sentence of torture and exile.