Hear No Evil

Two litigants once stood before Rav Aryeh Leib Shapira of Kavla. "Rebbe, we cannot agree on how to resolve the conflict between us," they said. "The only thing we agreed on is that you should decide, and whatever the Rebbe rules, we will accept."

Rav Aryeh Leib sat lost in thought for some time. At last he reached a conclusion. He banged his hand on the table, as was his custom when he wished to arouse himself especially toward the service of Hashem, and said, "When I was a young child, just beginning to learn the shapes of the holy letters of the aleph-beis, my holy father, Rav Mordechai of Neshchiz, asked me to dine with him. During the meal he told me the following.

"'Know, my son, that whatever you see was created by one Creator, Hashem, and all of it was done for the sake of the giving of the Torah.' He then began to relate to me all the events of Jewish history: the tales of Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov and their deeds, the stories of the tribes, of Yosef and his brothers and their descent into Egypt, their slavery and miraculous deliverance through the Exodus, their travels through the desert, and more. He explained how all of these events were set in motion for one purpose alone, that we should merit to accept the holy Torah.

"'Now know, my son,' my father continued, 'that Hashem and the Torah and Bnei Yisroel are bound together as one unit. Hashem is truth, His Torah is true, and His seal is truth. Therefore, if you speak the truth, you will be bound up with Hashem and with His Torah. But if, Heaven forbid, you lie and speak falsely, you will have nothing at all to do with Hashem or His holy Torah.' My father taught me this and reviewed it with me day after day until my Bar Mitzvah.

"Had my holy father spoken this way even to the simplest ignoramus, his words would have made an impact, and the man would never have spoken falsely for the rest of his life. But my father spoke those words to me, and upon me they did their work. He made me unable to hear lies and falsehood. Therefore I say to both of you: speak the truth. If either of you speaks a lie or utters any falsehood, I simply will not hear you at all. Speak the truth in your arguments, and I will hear them."

And this was Rav Aryeh Leib of Kavla's way. If anyone ever lied in his presence, he was simply deaf to him and did not hear what he said at all.