In the Jewish quarter of Kraków in the 17th century lived a man named Yossele, who was both infamous and pitied. He was a miser, so the townspeople said—a man of means who refused to share a single coin with the poor. He dressed in threadbare clothing, ate little, and avoided company. When beggars came to his door, he turned them away. When the community fundraisers came calling, he sent them off empty-handed. In a city where charity was a sacred duty, Yossele’s reputation sank lower each year.
When he died, no one mourned him. There was no rabbi to eulogize him, no crowd to escort him to the cemetery. The burial society consigned him to a lonely corner of the graveyard, among the least respected of the dead. The people of Kraków were relieved that the stingy old man was finally gone.
The tombstone of Yossele the Holy Miser in the Remah Cemetery, Kraków, Poland. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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