Looking out the window, Reb Zusya of Hanipoli once saw a wedding procession passing by his house. He immediately went out, and danced in the street with great joy before the bride and groom. When he came back inside his home, his family told him that they believed it was not dignified for him to dance out there in the street for just someone's wedding.
"Let me tell you a story," said Reb Zusya. "When I was young, I was a student of Reb Yechiel Michel, the Magid of Zlotchov. One time he scolded me very harshly. He later came over to clear up any hard feelings, and said: 'Reb Zusya, forgive me for my harsh words.'
" 'Rebbe,' I answered, 'I forgive you.'
"Before I went to sleep he came again, and said: 'Reb Zusya, forgive me!'
" 'Rebbe, I forgive you,' I reassured him.
"That night, when I lay down to sleep, but was still awake, my rebbe's father, Reb Yitzchak of Drohovitch, came to me from the World Above, and said: 'I left only one son after me in the World Below, one precious son. Do you want to destroy him because he insulted you?'
" 'Reb Yitzchak!' I protested. 'I have already forgiven your son with all my heart and soul! What else must I do?'
" 'This is not yet a perfect forgiveness,' he said. 'If you come along with me, I will show you how to forgive.'
"I followed him, until we came to the local mikva. There he told me to immerse myself in it three times, and to say each time that I forgave his son. Coming out of the mikva, I saw a light so bright radiating from Reb Yitzchak's face that I could not look at him. When I asked him where it came from, he told me that all his life he had been careful to observe the three things to which the Talmudic sage Rabbi Nechunya ben HaKanah attributed his long life: 'I never gained honor at the expense of the degradation of my fellow; I never went to sleep without forgiving everyone for the day's vexations; and I have been generous with my money.'
Reb Yitzchok added that, through joy, these three things that he had attained could also be achieved. "Therefore," concluded Reb Zusya to his family, "when I saw the wedding procession passing by our house, I hurried out in order to participate in the joy of the mitzva."
