145. Is It Possible That A Jew Sold His House On Yom Kippur?

00:16 Shalom Aleichem, kindalech. There is a mayse, a story with the Tzanz Rov, Chaim of Tzanz. Outside the city of Tzanz, there was a Jew who had a big piece of property, a lot of land, farms, and he had a house. And the man died and left a son who took over the land. Eh, the Politz who lived next door, nearby, he wanted to make... You know, to take over the land of this Jew. So at the end, when after the family said shiva and they, you know, the, the shloshim, he came and said to the son of the owner of the property who took over the property, he said that, "Your father actually sold me his land. This land that you're living on, actually he sold it to me before he died. And here I have a shtar, I have a document that shows that he sold it to me for a certain amount of money, so it's really mine. The reason I didn't say anything till, uh, till now is because I knew that he just died, and because you're sitting shiva, and, and I didn't wanna disturb you in the middle, so I waited a little while. But now I just want you to leave and find yourself another place to live, 'cause this whole land with the house, everything was sold to me." This Yid, the son, knew that it's, it's very, very strange. His father would never have sold this land. His father was very rich. He didn't have to sell

01:57 anything, and why would he sell the land which his son and, and the son's family live on? Why would he do that? It doesn't make sense. So he went to the Divrei Chaim, Rav Chaim of Tzanz, and he said to him, "Rebbe, the Politz wants to kick me out of my land, and he wants me to move somewhere else, and he says that my father sold it to him. My father never told me such a thing. I never heard from my father that he sold our land and our house to, to this Politz." So the, the Tzanz Rov said to him, "You know what? You don't move anything. You stay in the house, live there like normal until the Politz goes to court. He'll go to court. He'll tell the judge that he wants to invite you to, to the courthouse and in front of the judge, and he's going to argue in front of the judge that you owe him-- you have to leave the property and give him the, the land. And you should tell the judge... When the judge calls you, you should go to the court, to the judge, and say that, 'I have a lawyer.'" You know what a lawyer is when people go to court and they bring a lawyer who argues for them, right? He, he tells the, the judge why this person is right. "Tell him you have a lawyer, and the lawyer is me, Rav Chaim of Tzanz." So the Jew went back home. He didn't

03:20 move, and the Politz sees that the Jew is not moving, so he went to the courts and said, "Okay, I want to invite this Jew to the court, and that the judge should tell him that he must leave because this land is really mine." So the Jew came to the court in front of the judge, and he did exactly what Rav Chaim of Tzanz told him, and he said to the judge, "Judge, Your Honor, um, I have a lawyer. I, I'm-- who's gonna argue for me. And you know who my lawyer is? The great Rov, the Chaim of Tzanz." Tzanz was not far from there, right? This place where the Yid lived was outside the city of Tzanz, and the judge, who was a goy, knew and had heard of the great Rov, Rav Chaim of Tzanz, so he was surprised. The Rov is gonna be a lawyer? Never heard such a thing, but that's what the Jew said. So when the court case date came, the Rav Chaim of Tzanz showed up, and the judge asked him, "So how are you gonna defend this, this Jew? I mean, the Politz has a document which was signed by two witnesses that say that the father of this man sold it to him before he died, sold it to the Politz." So Rav Chaim of Tzanz says to the judge, "Your Honor, don't you think... Don't you see this fa- this man's father was a frum Yid, right? Are you agreed? Do you, do you know

04:48 him? You knew him. He was a frum Yid. You understand that a frum Yid doesn't write on Shabbos. And, um, you also know that this man, this man's father was a rich man. It's not like he needed money that he had to sell his house. He didn't need money. He had plenty of money, and people that have plenty of money don't usually sell their house unless they, they, they, they're desperate, they need money, then they sell their house, but he wasn't desperate. He was a rich man." So the judge says, "Yeah, I know he was a rich man. It's true." Says Rav Chaim of Tzanz, "Now let's look at the document. Look at the date. You see this date on the document? The date on the document says there are two witnesses that, that, um, this Jew sold the land to the Politz and signed by two witnesses. But the date, if you look back on the calendar, was Yom Kippur, and not only Yom Kippur, it was Yom Kippur that fell on the Shabbos. It's both Yom Kippur and Shabbos. How could the Jew sell this on Yom Kippur? He's Jewish. He's a frum Yid. He doesn't sell on Shabbos his land." When the judge saw this, he said, "Oh, the Rabiner, the Rov is very smart." So they brought the witnesses, and they started interrogating them and asking them questions. "Tell the truth. Tell the truth. Tell the truth," until they had no choice, and they said that the Politz told them he'll

06:21 give them a lot of money if they sign this document and they make a false signature. And then the Politz was caught, and he was sent to prison.