A CITY By Meir Avishalom
A knock at the door disturbed the quiet in the small room packed with s’farim. R’ Yisroel, the Koznitzer Maggid, looked up from the seifer in front of him and told the person knocking to enter. The door opened and in peeked the head of his faithful attendant.
“Rebbe,” said the attendant, “a man and woman urgently seek to speak with you.”
“Let them enter,” said R’ Yisroel.
In walked a man and woman who looked sad and worried.
After the attendant left the room, the woman began telling her bitter story.
“A few years ago, I married, but not long after, my husband left me. I don’t know where he is or where he went. Hence, I cannot receive a get (be divorced) from him.
“I am an aguna (not able to remarry) for a number of years now, without a husband and unable to remarry.” The woman burst into tears. Her brother, sitting next to her, asked R’ Yisroel to reveal to them, with his ruach ha’kodesh (prophetic spirit), where his sister’s husband was.
R’ Yisroel called for the attendant and told him to bring a pail full of water. The attendant hurried to do so and within a few minutes, the pail was placed before R’ Yisroel. R’ Yisroel then spoke to the crying woman and told her to look into the pail.
The woman looked into the pail and to her amazement, she saw a big city with many houses. Between the houses ran a big street which had a market full of merchants selling their wares. The woman looked at the street adjacent to the market and her gaze passed over the windows and houses on the street.
Suddenly, she cried out, “My husband! There is my husband, there in one of the houses! He is sitting with many tailors and sewing clothes. In my husband’s hand is a sleeve of a garment which he is ironing.”
R’ Yisroel told the woman to grab the sleeve out of her husband’s hands. To the astonishment of everyone in the room, the woman stuck her hand in the pail of water and pulled out the sleeve which was still warm from the iron.
“Take care of the sleeve,” R’ Yisroel instructed the stunned woman. “You can go with your brother in peace and before the end of the day you will receive a divorce from your husband.”
The woman and her brother wanted to ask R’ Yisroel where they should go. Where was that city that the woman saw in the pail of water? But R’ Yisroel did not answer them and only said that the good G-d would provide for all their needs.
The two went outside and there was a wagon with two horses and a gentile wagon driver. The two of them stopped the wagon and asked whether they could travel with him. The gentile did not even ask them where they wanted to go and how much they were willing to pay. He just told them to get on the wagon and he immediately had the horses galloping off to the unknown.
The wagon kept going and the woman and her brother had no idea where they were headed. A half an hour passed and suddenly, they both fell into a deep sleep. The gentile continued to hurry the horses.
When they opened their eyes, they saw they were in the middle of a thick forest; around them were only trees and vegetation. The wagon and driver had disappeared. They had no idea how long they had traveled and where they were, but they were sure this was a continuation of the miracles they had experienced in the tzaddik’s house and that nothing bad would happen to them. They began walking where their feet led them, with their hearts fully trusting in the tzaddik so that with Hashem’s help they would accomplish what they sought.
The edge of the forest was getting closer and to their joy they saw a big city not far away. They walked more quickly and arrived at the city.
The woman exclaimed, “This is the city that I saw in the pail of water! Come quickly! We will look for the market that I saw in the water and surely, my husband will be there.”
They hurried to find the market and within a few minutes arrived at the right street. The woman began peering into windows, just as she did with the pail of water, until she saw her husband through one of the windows. She wanted to immediately go over to him and demand a divorce, but her brother stopped her and said her husband could deny it and say he was not her husband.
“We need to consult with the rabbi of the city,” said the brother, and they went in search of the rav’s house.
The rav was busy learning when the woman and her brother arrived. They told him their sad story and about the recent miraculous developments. The rav asked the woman to describe her husband and said that he knew the man, and that he had been living in the city for several years and had a wife and children.
“Go into that side room,” he told them. He then called his attendant and told him to call for the woman’s husband. A few minutes later, he showed up.
The rav asked him, “Do you have a wife?”
The man wondered at this question and said, “Doesn’t the rav know that I have a wife and children now for several years?”
But the rav persisted, “Did you have a wife before you married this woman?”
“No,” said the man. “I was a bachelor when I came to this city.”
The rav asked, “Which garment did you sew today?”
The man began telling the remarkable story that happened to him that day. He was in the middle of ironing a garment when suddenly, before his eyes and the eyes of his astonished friends, the sleeve began to fly in the air and then disappeared.
“We searched for the sleeve for hours but could not find it,” he said.
“I can return it to you,” said the rav, and he instructed the woman in the side room to return the sleeve to her husband. The woman entered the room and placed the sleeve on the table. The husband, who did not notice who put the sleeve on the table, was very happy to see the sleeve and he exclaimed, “That’s the sleeve!”
“Indeed, it’s your sleeve,” said the rav, “but I think that this is also your first wife.”
The man looked up and when he saw his wife looking at him, he fell to the ground in a faint. When he regained consciousness, the man admitted that she had been his first wife and he gave her a get, thus releasing her from being an aguna.