Rabbi Yehuda Yoel Miller of Yerushalayim, a prominent Vizhnitzer chassid, related to Reb Shmuel’s children:
I was very close to Harav Yehuda Horowitz of Dzhikov, and I saw how he admired your father and accorded him great respect. Despite knowing your father, and being aware that he was an unparalleled baal tzedakah and how much he helped the Rebbe, it was still remarkable to me, because I knew that the Dzhikover Rebbe did not customarily honor people in this way — even lofty people of great stature. Therefore, when I received the book Ish Chessed Hayah from you, I read it with great interest, to try and solve this mystery that has been puzzling me for so many years. What did Harav Yehuda of Dzhikov see in your father that was so unique that he accorded him such great respect?
I began to read the book. I read about the wondrous acts of chessed, but even as I read, I didn’t find an answer to my question.
And then I reached Chapter Twenty, which recounted the story of the Rafiach and that your father paid a lot of money to bring the victims from Syrna for burial in Eretz Yisrael. That moved me very much. It wasn’t so much the actual deed, but rather that such a pure act — spending so much money for people who could never thank him and would never be able to repay him — is the greatest proof that his deeds were completely free of personal interest. That is indicative that all the other acts of chessed he performed were l’shem Shamayim as well.
