Rav Shlomo Kluger of Brod

Expensive Shrouds

It is told that an epidemic once broke out, and the death toll in Brod and the surrounding area climbed so high that the demand for burial shrouds rose and rose, until their price became exorbitant. An emergency meeting was held between the parnesei hakehillah and the town's lay leaders, and they decided there was no choice but to bury the poor in their own clothes.

When Rav Shlomo Kluger heard this, he was incensed. He went himself to one of the town leaders, a wealthy man who had barred himself in and allowed no one to enter, in a strict self-quarantine to spare himself any worry of infection. Rav Shlomo barged in unannounced and sharply rebuked him for neglecting his duty. "How can it be that the poor should be shamed in death?" He demanded that the wealthy man help cover the cost of the tachrichin.

The wealthy man was furious that the Rav had arrived unannounced and broken his quarantine. He argued and shouted, and in the end he threw the Rav out. A talmid chacham whom he supported and housed likewise defended him, davening for his health and claiming that his generosity was what supported his Torah study. Rav Shlomo stood his ground until he was shown the door.

That night the wealthy man fell ill. He understood that the Rav's rebuke and anger must have been a heavenly message, and he quickly sent the talmid chacham to appease Rav Shlomo. He agreed to pay the cost of the tachrichin and burial for all the poor, and he sent eighteen silver rubles as a down payment and kofer nefesh (atonement) to redeem himself. Rav Shlomo accepted the gift and blessed him with a refuah sheleimah. The next day the man was already feeling better. He immediately sent two thousand silver rubles, and he was healed.

An Unusual Shlach Monos

Every year, one of the town's wealthy merchants sent Rav Shlomo a gift of one gold ducat as shlach monos. One Purim, however, the shlach monos contained five gold ducats. Rav Shlomo kept the one customary coin and sent the other four back. When his family asked why he had returned such a princely gift, he explained.

"Every year this man sends me the same gift of one gold ducat. He has kept this minhag for many years. Now suddenly he sends five? There must be a reason. He must have an upcoming din Torah that he wants me to sit in judgment on, or some other matter for me to decide. I refuse to be bribed."

As Chazal say, chochom adif minovi, a scholar is preferred to a prophet. Rav Shlomo was proved right. A few days later the merchant arrived with a sample bottle of English rum that he had bought, hoping that Rav Shlomo would permit it for Pesach and issue a kosher certification. Instead, Rav Shlomo forbade the rum, and his ruling against drinking it on Pesach appears in his glosses on the Shulchan Aruch, Chochmas Shlomo.

The Wine and the Wallet

"Be cautious in judgment" (Avos 1:1). Rav Ovadia Yosef used to illustrate this Mishnah with a story about Rav Shlomo Kluger.

It is told that a Jew owned a wine store, and in its cellar he kept many barrels of wine worth a large sum of money. He had a helper who worked in the store. One day, as Shabbos approached, the helper decided that the perfect place to hide his money pouch was in the locked cellar among the barrels. The pouch held all his savings, some two hundred gold rubles that he had scrimped and saved.

On Motzaei Shabbos he was distressed to find that the money was gone. He asked his employer, who denied knowing anything about the pouch. The helper came before Rav Shlomo Kluger and cried and begged him for help. "I suspect my employer," he said, "for the cellar was locked and no one else has the keys."

Rav Shlomo summoned the wine merchant and asked about the missing money, and the merchant denied any knowledge of it. "You know that I trust you," said Rav Shlomo, "and I know that no Jew would commit such an evil deed as to steal a poor man's money." The wine merchant smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I must therefore conclude that a gentile broke into your cellar and stole the money, and I am sure you understand what that means." The merchant's smile vanished and a look of growing concern replaced it. "The only resolution now is for me to rule that all your wine is forbidden. I will summon the shamash of the bais din and issue a proclamation that your wine has been exposed and is no longer kosher, since the halachah forbids wine that has come in contact with gentiles."

The wine merchant grew pale, realizing that he stood to lose a fortune many times greater than the money in the pouch. "Well," he hemmed and hawed, "now that the Rav mentions it, I do seem to remember finding a pouch with some money." Rav Shlomo would not accept this until the merchant ran home and returned with the money. He gave it back to his helper, and the matter was settled.

Hakoras Hatov

It is told that when Rav Shlomo was an unknown young man and utterly destitute, a neighbor who was not observant saw his misery and cut some wood so that the family could heat their home, especially since there was a newborn baby in the house.

Rav Shlomo told his gabbai to let him know whenever that neighbor passed away. Years later, when the neighbor returned his soul to his Maker, the gabbai came and told him. Rav Shlomo said that he wanted to attend the funeral, which amazed the gabbai, who wondered what Rav Shlomo was doing at the funeral of a man who was not observant. At the burial site, Rav Kluger waited until the body was buried, then broke off a twig from a nearby tree and planted it on the fresh kever.

That Shabbos Rav Shlomo came into shul with his face fiery red. He paced back and forth for several hours, repeating the words Or zaruah latzaddik, ulyishrei lev simchah. The whole shul saw that something extraordinary was happening. Rav Shlomo davened in his own private room for the entire Shabbos. After Shabbos, several elders respectfully asked him what had happened.

He told them that when he set the twig on his former neighbor's grave, it had momentous consequences. The Satan was going through his list of those who had died that week and were slated for punishment, and he noticed that one person was missing. He found that Rav Shlomo's act was keeping him from getting hold of the neighbor's soul, and he approached Rav Shlomo and demanded that he let it go. Rav Shlomo refused, saying that this man had helped him in his lifetime and had in fact saved his children's lives with the warmth he provided.

So the Satan took Rav Shlomo to the bais din shel maalah, and Rav Shlomo increased his tefillos. After Rav Shlomo agreed that he would not do this again, the bais din released the neighbor's soul to him, and he placed it in Gan Eden.