The Will and the Wise

by Dovid Zaklikowski for Hasidic Archives

A family once came to Rabbi Mordechai Yosef “Reb Motele Zlatopoli” Twersky, who was the rabbi of the shtetl of Zlatopil, Ukraine, with a question about their inheritance. Our father did not leave a will, they told the rabbi, and they asked that he wisely divide their father’s belongings among the siblings. He did, and the family happily began to divide the inheritance.

As they were going through the process of dividing his belongings, they found their father’s will. The calculations in the will differed from what the rabbi had decided.

Those who would receive more according to the will said, “It is a mitzvah to fulfill the words of the deceased.” Those who received more according to the rabbi’s ruling said, “It is a mitzvah to adhere to the direction of the wise.”

They returned to the rabbi for guidance on what to do.

Reb Motele told them that they should follow what it says in the will. “If you follow what it says in the will, you will surely be fulfilling ‘the words of the deceased,’ because he surely died. However, if you follow the first ruling, there is doubt as to whether you will be fulfilling ‘the direction of the wise,’ for perhaps that person is not wise. And doubt does not override a certainty.”

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