Reb Shayaleh's Advice to the Rav of Uhjel

Rav Yoel and Reb Shayaleh were close friends. They visited each other now and then and exchanged greetings, and Rav Yoel liked to call him a velts chacham (a genius of worldwide stature).

Uhjel had a well-known problem. Certain unlearned Jews earned their living working for non-Jews, and their jobs required leather shoes. They drew the mistaken conclusion that this allowed them to keep the shoes on through all of Tisha B'Av, so some arrived at shul for Shacharis and kinnos in leather and went directly to work afterward. Rav Yoel was in his first year as Rav of Uhjel. The community's leaders worried that on seeing this he would shame the offenders publicly and open a fresh division. They approached him and urged that it was better for these Jews to err unintentionally than to turn into deliberate sinners.

Rav Yoel was stunned. "Do you mean to tell me," he asked, "that on the day our holy Beis HaMikdash was destroyed and went up in flames, these Jews will come to shul in leather shoes?" "What should we do?" the leaders asked. "I cannot remain as Rav in a place where some members of the community so openly go against the halachah, something stated plainly in Shulchan Aruch," he answered. The leaders left downcast, and Rav Yoel himself was at a loss.

Some days later he went to Kerestir for a din Torah and, as usual, called on Reb Shayaleh to ask after his welfare. He laid out the problem and asked for advice on how to extricate himself. Reb Shayaleh, in his usual way, shut his eyes and leaned back as though sleeping, and then said, "Regarding this matter, your best bet is to speak with rabbiner Roth." Roth led the status quo congregation, so Rav Yoel was astonished and asked what connection he could possibly have and what answer he could give. Reb Shayaleh answered again, "Speak with rabbiner Roth, and your honor will see success." Privately Rav Yoel thought that although Reb Shayaleh was a renowned sage, this time he had missed the mark. Still, he decided he had nothing to lose and would act on the advice.

Returning to Uhjel, he sent for rabbiner Roth, explaining that he had an urgent matter to discuss. Roth, surprised that the Rav of the Orthodox congregation wished to meet him, hurried over out of respect. "Please, rabbiner Roth, I have an urgent request," said Rav Yoel. He asked him to use his Shabbos sermon to speak of the approaching Tisha B'Av: how it commemorates our national tragedy, how the Beis HaMikdash was set aflame twice on that date, how Jews the world over have fasted and mourned through the generations, and how one of the customs is to refrain from wearing leather shoes. The request seemed odd, but Roth agreed, and his sermon covered all these points.

Rav Yoel then addressed his own congregation and rebuked them. "What shame," he said. "How will you face it? Even the status quo congregation has heard of the stringency of mourning on Tisha B'Av and of refraining from leather shoes, and yet our Orthodox members openly ignore the law and walk around in leather shoes." The advice of Reb Shayaleh did the trick. That year, no one in the community appeared in shul on Tisha B'Av in leather shoes.