The Berditchever once told the following story: There once happened that the heavenly court judged a Jew and he unfortunately had few merits. They recalled that he once supported a widow and saved her life. So they placed the widow on the scale and she outweighed all his sins.
The prosecutor argued – “it once happened with a Jew who stole money and in his case, they considered as sin only the coins that he stole – shouldn’t they also in his case weigh the person from whom he stole the money?”
The angel Michael replied – “Follow the reasoning! We understand that in the case of the widow, the main thing wasn’t the few coins that he gave her – he intended to save her life – that is why we consider the entire widow whom he saved and place her on the scale. In the case of the Jewish thief – he had no interest in the life of the Jew – only his money and that is why we weigh only the coins.
The tsadikim of the generation said – that the Berditchever Rabbi told this over in the name of the angel Michael but that he came up with this solution.
I.F.
Jacob Teitelbaum
