The Bill Is on the Table

A person once asked the Chafetz Chaim osb’m, “Rebbe, how have you achieved such wonderful longevity?”

The Chafetz Chaim, way past 90 at the time, answered, “Hashem has enabled me to see cycles completed.” In other words, Hashem had given the Chafetz Chaim the privilege of seeing Divine justice fully manifest itself in this world.

What was the Chafetz Chaim talking about? If I’m not mistaken, he was referring to two separate events that occurred in Radin, his hometown where he was Rosh Yeshiva, one with a widow and one with an orphan. The Chafetz Chaim was especially sympathetic to the plight of widows and orphans, which wasn’t at all easy in his day. He often quoted the Torah, which says: “If you hurt an orphan or a widow, I will hear their cries and I will take revenge against you.” (Exodus 22: 21-23). He would warn that Hashem would personally see to the punishment of those who harm widows and orphans.

The Widow

A widow in Radin barely scraped a living for herself and for her one child by selling whiskey to the wagon masters who passed by her dilapidated rented shack by the main road on the edge of town. One winter was especially bitter in Radin, and since the road was covered so deep in snow, there was almost no traffic and therefore no customers. Her landlord, one of the foremost rich men of Radin, complained to her in February that she was three months behind in her rent and that if she didn’t pay by the end of the week, he’d evict her. The poor widow barely had a dry crust of bread to keep her and her son alive, much less the rent money. She pleaded with him to give her grace until the snows melted and she could sell whiskey to the passersby once more.

The landlord, despite the fact that he could still live lavishly without the few rubles of the widow’s rent money, claimed that if he would give her grace, then all his tenants would demand the same and he would lose tremendous sums. Therefore, with no heart or trace of compassion, he sent five burly Russian thugs to throw the widow and all her possessions out on the snow, then locked the shack and sealed it with wooden planks.

The whole town of Radin was in an uproar. They collected food for the widow and found some hovel where she and her son could stay in the meanwhile until they could find something better. A group of townspeople approached the Chafetz Chaim before Shabbat and asked, “Rebbe, how can Hashem allow such cruelty? Look what happened!”

The Chafetz Chaim answered, quoting Ethics of the Fathers, “Don’t despair from the calamity” (Avot 1:7). He then said, “There is a Supreme Judge in the world; He has His own timetable.”

Twenty-two years transpired. A rabid dog wandered into Radin and made a beeline for the rich landlord’s mansion. Just then, in perfect Divine providence, the rich landlord exited his home. The dog rushed up to the doorstep and bit his leg. Soon after, the landlord died an excruciatingly miserable death from rabies. It took twenty-two years, but Hashem enabled the Chafetz Chaim to see the cycle of justice come to completion.

The Orphan

During the reign of Czar Nicholas I, the Jewish population was required to fill a quota of boys aged between 12-25 for the Russian army to serve for a period of 25 years. This was not only a spiritual death sentence, but frequently a physical one as well. This terrible decree became known as the Cantonist Decree, which was still in full force during the Chafetz Chaim’s lifetime. This sadistic decree obligated local leaders to fill horrendous quotas of young Jewish boys. Communities resorted to sending the type of boys who had no one to defend them, mainly the poor and especially the orphans.

In the Radin area, there was once another Jew, a butcher, whose son was slated to be drafted into the army. He bribed a Russian officer, revealed the identity and whereabouts of an orphan, and convinced the officer to take the orphan in place of his son. When the Chafetz Chaim heard about this, he said, “Wait and see. Hashem will make this man pay the price of his actions.” Thirty years later, the butcher’s son became afflicted with cholera and died. The burial committee refused to deal with the body due to the contagious disease. His father, the butcher, had to dig a grave and bury his son with his own hands. 

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We often see gross injustices done to people and we wonder how Hashem allows such things to happen in the world. But our sages told us, “Don’t despair from the calamity”; don’t hold a stopwatch in Hashem’s face. Hashem takes an unfathomable amount of facts into consideration, which no human can begin to grasp. Justice might be immediate, a month, a year, a decade or even more. But, justice will come.

Imagine a man who has just finished a fancy dinner with the finest wines in the most expensive restaurant. An onlooker looks with envy and says, “Look what that guy ate – the most expensive stuff on the menu! It didn’t cost him a cent, either; he’s happier than a lark, eating Chateau Briand and foie gras for free…”

The onlooker doesn’t see the bill on the table. Just because the waiter hasn’t come to collect the money, that doesn’t mean that it won’t have to be paid. Nobody walks away with a free meal in this world. Just like the restaurant, the bill is on the table and sooner or later, Hashem Himself will be coming to collect payment.