The fowl trick they tried to play on the rabbi

By Rabbi Baruch Lederman

Rabbi Baruch Lederman
Rabbi Baruch Lederman

SAN DIEGO — The generation that stood at Har Sinai was the greatest generation of all time. Their leader was the greatest leader of all time.

This was not a coincidence. Hashem gives us leaders in proportion to the generation. The greater the generation, the greater the leader.

Young Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, who would eventually become world famous as the Nodeh B’Yehuda, had a challenging beginning to his illustrious Rabbinic career. After being appointed Rabbi of the great city of Prague, there were men who sneered at the idea of having such a young man hold the mantle of spiritual leadership. They never stopped seeking ways to undermine him.

They once sent a woman to ask the Rabbi a question about the kashrus of a chicken. In those days, stores did not stock prepackaged pre-inspected chickens with a kosher seal. A woman would buy a live chicken and bring it to a shochet (trained butcher) who would slaughter it for her. If there was some question as to the kashrus of the chicken, she would bring the chicken to show it to the Rabbi.

Rabbi Landau ruled that the chicken in question was kosher. There was however, a very obscure commentary which discussed this exact case and ruled that such a chicken was rendered unkosher by this particular blemish. Since in those days printed sefarim (books) were very expensive and rare, Rabbi Landau was unaware of that particular ruling.

His detractors did have a copy.

The men now used this incident as a springboard to publicly humiliate the Rabbi. They confronted the Rabbi with the printed ruling in a most condescending manner.

Arrogantly pointing out that it contradicted Rabbi Landau’s decision, all the while intimating that perhaps the venerable Prague community would be better served with a more experienced Rabbi at the helm. Everyone present waited for the Rabbi to respond.

The Nodeh B’Yehuda thought about the issue and replied, “When a Rabbi, who is a competent Torah authority, issues a ruling on a shailah (inquiry), Hashem (G-d) gives him Divine assistance in the merit of the Jewish community which he serves, so that even if he errs in his reasoning, his ruling will wind up being correct. This did not happen with the case at hand. The only logical conclusion is that the shailah was not a real shailah at all, but rather an invented case made up in an attempt to simply vex me. That is why I had no special Siyata D’Shmaya (Divine assistance) – it is only sent from Heaven when the question is real.”

The schemers were stunned that the Rabbi had seen right through them, and they shamefacedly admitted to their ploy. As a result, Rabbi Landau’s public esteem was increased, not decreased, by this spiteful plot.

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Rabbi Baruch Lederman is spiritual leader of Congregation Kehillas Torah in San Diego.  He may be contacted via baruch.lederman@sdjewishworld.com