Sefer Imrei Pinchos relates that the Chozeh of Lublin zy”a had a student named Rav Avrohom Mordechai of Pinchov zy”a, who was a very poor man. He had three daughters who reached marriageable age, but he had no money for a dowry and could not afford to marry them off.
Whenever he would travel to the Chozeh, his wife would urge him to tell him about his daughter’s difficult situation and ask for advice and a bracha. But each time he would go, he would completely forget about his troubles and never remembered to bring it up to the Rebbe.
Finally, his wife saw that her only option was to travel to Lublin after him. When he saw that his wife had followed him to Lublin, he had no choice but to mention his problems to the Chozeh.
The Chozeh asked him, “Why didn’t you tell me about this before?”
He answered, “I know the Rebbe has ruach hakodesh. I thought he knew about it without me needing to tell him.”
The Chozeh told him, “That’s not the way it works. The Torah tells us that when someone finds a spot on his body, he goes to a kohen to show it to him. It does not say that he tells him about it; rather, he goes to the kohen and shows it to him without saying anything. But when the Torah talks about spots that appear on walls of homes, it says that he tells the kohen about it.
“We see that when it comes to problems at home – meaning with matters of gashmius - you have to tell the kohen about it and cannot assume he already knows about it.”
