Chassidic Insights on Tehillim 19 – Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch of Rimanov

Chassidic Insights on Tehillim 19 – Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch of Rimanov

Tehillim 19:8  “Torat Ha-Shem temimah, meshivat nefesh” – (the Torah of G-d is perfect, restoring the soul). One day, a weeping woman came to Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch of Rimanov and complained that she had been treated unfairly in a rabbinical court. The tzadik summoned the judges and said: “Show me the text on which you based your ruling, because it seems to me that there is an error here.” Together, they examined the section of Choshen Mishpat in the Shulchan Aruch on which the judges had based their decision, and concluded that it had been misinterpreted. One of the judges asked Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch how he had known in advance that an error had been made. He replied: “Because it is written in Tehillim: ‘The Torah of G-d is perfect, restoring the soul.’ The woman would not have cried if the court’s ruling had been based on true Torah law.” (From Martin Buber’s book “Hasidic Tales: The Later Masters”)