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was dripping water onto an empty plastic bottle, making a noise that
sounded just like the blows of a hammer while preparing schnitzels.
The bottle was switched and the banging stopped.

This example shows us that in our case although the daughter
should believe that everything her mother is telling her is true she
must go to the people who troubled her mother and if they deny the
matter, it is a mitzvah for her seek alternative explanations for those
things that bothered her mother rather than attributing them to the
neighbors’ ill behavior.

Here is another example: A woman came to the rav and showed
him her husband’s shirt, which bore a hole with scorched edges. She
was certain that the hole had been made by her upstairs neighbor
who would smoke at his open window and who had apparently
tossed out the burning butt when he finished his cigarette, landing
on the shirt. The neighbor admitted to being in the habit of smoking
by the window but denied her accusation, maintaining that he wasn’t
in the habit of throwing cigarette butts down. The rav related this
story in a public speech, warning about the grave injuries neighbors
often inflict on one another. After the speech, a neighbor from that
very building approached the rav and said that his son had thrown a
burning match from their window, and he assumed that it had made
the hole. Here is another case where if the mother gets annoyed with
the neighbor her daughter is allowed to believe the actual story but
for herself must judge the neighbor favorably and think that he may
not have been the one who burned the shirt.

ɳ Summary and Conclusions

1. The mother should tell her troubles to her daughter and need not
tell her,“Don’t believe me.”

2. If the daughter asks us whether or not to believe her mother she
should be told,“Listen to her and believe her but don’t decide for
yourself that he is a bad person. Instead, judge him favorably but
don’t mention it to your mother.

176 1 Medical-Halachic Responsa of Rav Zilberstein