The Tanna Dvei Eliyahu teaches that “Hashem tied Himself to us with a knot or a crown that extends from one end of the world to the other. He left behind the 496,000 of ministering angels and instead chose to attached Himself to us Bnei Yisroel forever.”
Rav Shmuel of Shinova in his commentary, Ramasayim Tzofim, tells us the following related story:
Rav Moshe Reb Zalman once observed the holy Chozeh of Lublin take a shmek tabak a pinch of snuff in the midst of davening as was his custom. Reb Moshe disapproved of this practice and told the rebbe, it isn’t proper to interrupt the davening to do so.
The Chozeh responded with the following parable:
There was once a great king who was passing by the marketplace when he observed a poor musician who sat playing his fiddle. The musician was an expert and his beautiful playing captured the king’s heart. His music found such favor in the king’s eyes that the king appointed him as the personal musician to the royal court.
Every day he would enter the king’s chambers and serenade the king with his beautiful music. It was also a daily ritual that at some point the fiddle’s strings required tuning and mending. Sometimes a string would snap or go out of tune in the midst of a song.
And so, the newly appointed royal fiddler would sit and tune or fix his fiddle sometimes for hours while the king waited to hear his melodious music.
One of the king’s courtiers asked the musician if he didn’t think it was disrespectful and even treasonous of him to have to make the king wait day after day while he adjusted his fiddle strings?
‘Listen,’ answered the royal fiddler, ‘the king has many groups of musicians at his disposal--whole orchestras and bands. Wouldn’t it more make sense that the king would enjoy their music more so than mine? However, he delights in me and my fiddle more than all of them. Having chosen me over them, he can suffer waiting for me to tune my instrument for him too. If not, he would surely have chosen them over me, don’t you agree?’
“So too with us,” said the Chozeh. “Hashem lacks no thousands of angels to serenade and praise Him on High, yet still he chose us, Bnei Yisroel, with all our imperfections and faults. Surely He can suffer our interruptions to tune and prepare ourselves for Him!” (Ramasayim Tzofim on Tanna Dvei Eliyahu Rabbah Chapter 6:13)
