Rav Nosson never ate any food cooked on Pesach, only that which had been cooked before Yom Tov in his own special keilim (This was because before Pesach any infinitesimal amount of chametz which might have inadvertently entered the food is batel – nullified. But in food cooked on Pesach itself, not even a mashehu of chametz is batel, even one part in 1000!).
One year, after his Pesach food was prepared and heated, someone unwittingly stirred it with a spoon that was not one of his special keilim. The entire dish subsequently fell and shattered and all the food was ruined. The mistake with the spoon was later discovered and people saw how from Heaven had saved him from transgressing his own stringencies.
Similarly, someone once brought him wine to make Kiddush on Shabbos morning and the bottle fell and broke and all the wine was spilled. They later discovered that the wine had not conformed to his strictures of kashrus.
Meriting to See the Holy Land
Once, when Rav Nosson was serving as Rav of Tet-Vigsing, he was called to Belgrade on some matter. There was a mountain so high there that it was rumored to be possible to see Eretz Yisrael from its summit. Rav Nosson greatly desired to see the Holy Land and so he climbed for hours to reach the mountain’s peak. After a long, arduous journey, he finally reached the top only to discover that the rumors were untrue; he could not see Eretz Yisrael at all. At most, he could perhaps gaze in the general direction that would eventually lead to the land. In his exhaustion and disappointment, Rav Nosson fell asleep. He had a vision in a dream in which he was shown the entire stretch of Eretz Yisrael, from border to border. He was also shown every holy place – the Mekomos Hakedoshim. When he awoke he was full of joy, content that he had indeed merited to see the Holy Land after all (Toldos Geonei Hagar pgs. 27-28).
