with her love”, and say that he was so connected to Hashem with such a deep dveikus that he was drunk with love for Him and desire to serve Him.
His brother, Rav Elimelech, had yet to become connected to chasidus, and he spent his days studying Torah with other lamdanim. He was bothered by the fact that his brother, Rav Zushe, acted in a way that seemed so strange and he asked him about it.
Rav Zushe told him, “My brother, let me tell you a story that will help you understand....”
This is the story he told him:
There once lived a wise and mighty king. All of his subjects loved him very much.
In this kingdom, there lived a wealthy man who had a made a fortune from his hard work. One day, he thought to himself: What do I need all this money for? I never enjoyed earthly pleasures. I’m happy with a bit of bread and water. Since I don’t derive any pleasure from my fortune, what good is to me?
He decided to sell all his property and travel to the capital city, where the king lived, with the hope of using his fortune to obtain a position in the king’s cabinet. When he got there, he asked those close to the king if any position was open. He was told that only one job was available – the job of chopping wood for the king’s oven!
They added that even this position would not be easy to obtain. The king would only hire someone whom he liked and wanted near him.
The wealthy man was willing to accept any position that brought him close to the king he loved so much, so he said that he was willing to donate his entire fortune to the king’s treasury in exchange for this position. To his delight, his offer was accepted and he was given the job of chopping wood for the king’s fire.
While this man chopped wood and fed the fire, he would often stand near the door to the king’s room to see if he was saying anything about the temperature in the palace. He wanted to hear if he was saying it was too hot or too cold, so he would know if he should raise or lower the fire in order to make his king more comfortable. Over time, he figured out exactly what temperature the king liked, and he made sure to put the exact amount of wood into the fire to make the palace exactly right for the king – not too hot and not too cold.
After a while, the king realized that he had not been bothered by heat or cold for some time. He asked his ministers what had changed. How was the palace being maintained at such a perfect temperature?
They told him all about the man who loved the king so much that he left his home, sold all his possessions, and traveled a long distance just to serve him and bring him pleasure. They described how he agreed to do this degrading work, and how he threw himself into the job and focused solely on providing a benefit for his beloved king.
When the king heard this, he asked for the man to be brought to him, as he wanted to meet the man who was so devoted to him.
The king was delighted to meet this man and he asked, “What can I do for you, my friend? How can I honor you?”
The man answered, “I don’t want anything for myself. My only desire is to serve the king. I only ask for one thing. I would like to be able to see the king whenever I am struck with a desire to see him!”
The king was very happy to hear how much the man loved him, but it was hard for him to fulfill his request. It would be unbecoming for him to make himself available to be seen by a low-level servant at all times and to open all of his doors to him.
Therefore, he told him, “My friend, I cannot agree to this. But let me tell you what I can do. I can drill a small hall in the ceiling above my private room and put a telescope by that hole. You can always go into the attic and look through that hole with the telescope. This way, you will be able to see my face whenever you want to!”
The man loved this idea and he thanked the king very much. From then on, whenever his heart desired to see his king, he would hurry to the attic and he would look at him through the telescope.
One day, the king made a grand feast for all of his ministers and friends. The prince, his only son, sat next to him at the head of the table. In the middle of the feast, the prince got a bit drunk and began to speak nonsensically in front of all the important guests. This made the king very angry, and he threw him out of his room, saying that he would not be allowed back for a full year and he did not want to see his face for all that time.
The banished prince missed his father immensely and yearned to see his face, but he had no way of seeing him. From time to time, he would see the woodchopper going up the attic and looking at something. He wondered what he was doing and asked him about, and the man explained to him about the hole the king had made for him to use whenever he wanted to see him. The prince asked if he could use the telescope as well, and the man agreed. When the prince looked down and saw his father’s face for the first time in a long time, he was overjoyed.
The man then said, “I am a simple, unlearned and uncultured man. It would be unbecoming for the king to constantly be seen with an unrefined man like me in his presence. So, for me, it is sufficient to look at the king through a hole.
“But you are the prince! You are a wise, refined and cultured man, and you should be near your father at all times. you shouldn’t have allowed yourself to act in such an uncouth way. Because of this, you have to look through this hole too! How disgraceful!
“Take a lesson from this! From now on, make sure to speak and act properly, as is fitting for a man like you, so that you will be able to see your father from up close and you won’t have to look at him through a hole in the ceiling!”
Rav Zushe then humbly said, “My brother, you know that I possess no Torah, no wisdom and no understanding. Therefore, I have to work hard to serve Hashem. I have to go to great length to be able to see His face.
“But you are a great talmid chochom. All you have to do is to be careful with you speak and act, and you will be able to be right near the King.”
These words touched Rav Elimelech’s heart and led him to travel to Mezheritch and to become a chasid of the Magid.
