A Kohen By Any Other Name
Many times I have heard this same story involving Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt’l. Rav Moshe was attending a b’ris. There were two cartons of chalav Yisrael milk in front of him, from two competing brands with different hechsherim. Rav Moshe picked up one of the cartons, only to put it down and choose the other carton instead. Onlookers noticed and word spread that Rav Moshe preferred one brand and its hechsher over the other brand. Someone decided to find out why and asked Rav Moshe for an explanation. Rav Moshe was baffled, as he had no idea what the person was referring to.
“But at the b’ris, people saw you look at the container and return it to the table!”
“I put the container back down because it was empty!” Rav Moshe replied.
Unfortunately, misunderstandings can occur when people try to interpret the actions of gedolim. Sometimes, people misinterpret their words as well. There is a story told about the rav of a town in Eretz Yisrael where the residents were not learned in the laws of mikveh. He was speaking on the topic of men using the mikveh on erev Yom Kippur or erev Shabbos. He said that if a mikveh was unavailable, a man may take a shower using nine kavim—roughly six gallons—of water. A man went to the rav the next week to thank him for his good idea. It was very cold outside, so he told his wife to take a shower instead of going to the mikveh. The rav was horrified to hear that his ruling had been terribly misapplied to the use of mikveh by women. The leniency of nine kavim is solely applicable for men (and it also may be used by the chevra kadisha).