The Story of Nochum Ish Gamzu
(The stories appear in Maseches Taanis 21A.)
A story is told that Nachum Ish Gamzu was blind in both eyes, missing both legs, missing both hands and his entire body was covered in boils. He was lying in a dilapidated house with the legs of his bed in buckets of water so that ants could not crawl onto him. Once his talmidim wanted to remove his bed from the house and then remove the furniture. Nachum Ish Gamzu said to them, “My children, first remove the furniture then remove my bed because you may be assured that as long as I am in this house it won’t collapse.” They listened to him and removed the furniture, then the bed, and the house collapsed after Nachum Ish Gamzu was outside it.
His talmidim asked of him, “Rebbe, since you are completely righteous, why did this happen to you (the boils, no arms etc...)?”
He replied, “My children, I brought it upon myself. I was once traveling on a road to the house of my father-in-law and I had three donkeyloads of food items: one of food, one of drink, and the last one of delicacies. A poor man approached me and said, ‘Rebbe, sustain me.’
“I replied, ‘Wait until I unload some food from the donkey.’
“ Before I had a chance to unload the donkey the man’s soul departed. I went and fell on my face and said, ‘Let the eyes that took no pity on your eyes become blind; let my hands which took no pity on your hands be cut off; let my legs which took no pity on your legs be cut off.’ And my mind did not find rest until I said, ‘Let my entire body be covered with boils!’”
Nachum Ish Gamzu said to his talmidim, “Woe to me had you not seen me like this.”
The Gemora then goes on to ask why they called him Nachum Ish Gamzu? It answers that whatever happened to him he would reply, “Gam zu letova – This, too, is for the best.”
