The Man Who Could Not Find His Seat

It is told that in Prague there lived a wealthy and learned man whose daughter had been left an agunah when her husband disappeared years earlier. One day a stranger arrived and said that he was the missing husband. The family wanted to believe him, yet something troubled them, and they brought the matter to Rav Yechezkel.

The Rav studied the man for a long while without speaking a word. Then he quietly told the woman that she should not allow the man to touch her, and he advised the family to keep their guest with them through Shabbos.

On Shabbos morning the father-in-law walked with the man toward the shul. At the entrance he lingered, as though detained, and told his guest to go in and take his place. The man walked in and stood hesitating. He did not know where to sit. A son-in-law of that house would have gone straight to his seat.

After Shabbos the Rav questioned the man, and he admitted that he was not the husband at all. Rav Yechezkel ordered him to leave the city.

In this way a woman's long anguish was not ended by a false release, and a family was spared a grave mistake. The Rav needed no accusation and no harsh word. He needed patience, a little time and a quiet question that only the true husband could answer.