A woman was married to a carpenter who frequently left her to search for employment. At one point, he vanished and she was left with no clue regarding his whereabouts. On a particular occasion, R. Asher’l Stoliner* passed through the village where the wife lived. As he was departing, the aguna (abandoned wife) was overcome with emotion and shared her hardships with him, her heart heavy with bitterness. He listened to her story while standing next to the coach. Upon noticing the coach’s wheel, he remarked that a carpenter needs to be summoned to fix it. With the arrival of the carpenter from the village, the rebbe initiated a conversation about the carpenter who had gone missing, until he eventually shouted at him, “Confess!” The rebbe then convinced him to confess to killing and burying the missing man under his own courtyard during an altercation.
* Although not 100% certain that this is R. Asher, he definitely belongs to the Stoliner dynasty.
Y.F.
Pesakh Leltchik
(Stoliner hasid)
