When Rav Levi Yitzchok came to Berditchev he asked if anyone still remembered the great and holy Rav Leiber who was once there in Berditchev who had had a mikve. One of the elders spoke up that he remembered from when he was sixteen – he even remembered where the mikve was and he showed the Rav. Rav Levi Yitzchok asked them to dig there in that place; they dug but there was not enough water. They continued digging until they hit water, but it was so shallow that it only reached their knees.
Rav Levi Yitzchok then asked if there were any other elders who might remember the shamash who used to clean the shul and who was found hanged (or, based on another tradition, burned)? They found another elder and he remembered the shamash who was at the time an elder himself who had hanged (or burned) himself. The Berditchever went together with the elders to the place where the mikve had been dug, not far from where Rav Leiber was buried, disrobed and placed one foot in the mikve and began to explain.
Rav Leiber was the Rav before Rav Levi Yitzchok in Berditchev. He came to Rav Levi Yitzchok in a dream, telling him: ‘The shamash of the shul was a simple and pious individual who was greatly involved in serving Hashem. So much so that one Erev Shabbos while he was busy kindling the large candelabrum that hung as a chandelier from the shul’s ceiling, he asked Hashem, ‘Master of the World! What can I give to You? What can I do for You? I will give myself to You!’ And he hanged himself (or burned himself) mistakenly for the sake of Heaven. Since the shamash sinned by committing suicide, his soul knows no peace in the higher worlds.’
‘However,’ said Rav Levi Yitzchok, ‘since his intentions were lofty, for the sake of Hashem, there is an opportunity to rectify his soul. Rav Leiber explained to me that the only way to rectify the shamash’s soul is for me to immerse myself in Rav Lieber’s mikve not far from his tziun.’
And then the elder was able to see the departed soul of the shamash whom he recognized, standing there. Rav Levi Yitzchok turned to the soul of the shamash and said, ‘If you can help me get enough water to immerse I will be able to rectify you.’ As soon as Rav Levi Yitzchok entered the pit, the mikve filled with enough water to immerse. (Another tradition says that as soon as they dug there was enough water, but it kept refilling with the dug earth and mud, until Rav Levi Yitzchok entered the pit and then it filled with water).
Rav Levi Yitzchok then said, ‘Why should this shamash be considered guilty? Everything he did was really solely for Hashem!’ So saying, he immersed and rectified the shamash’s soul.