The holy Mezritcher Maggid was very ill. As his talmidim prayed for his well-being, they sent a pidyon nefesh to Rav Pinchas Koretzer, along with a request for his help to daven for the Maggid’s health.
Despite his best efforts, Rav Pinchas saw that it was to no avail; something was blocking his requests. In order to get to discover the source of this interference, he decided to come and visit the Maggid himself.
When he arrived, he met Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the mechaber of the Sefer HaTanya and founder of Chabad Chassidus, outside in the antechamber. “The Maggid is resting now, he is asleep,” explained the Ba’al HaTanya to Rav Pinchas. After they spoke, Rav Pinchas proceeded on to the Bais Medrash. There to his horror he discovered various writings, teachings of Chassidus and the Maggid’s discourses lying haphazardly on the ground like discarded debris. He lifted up the holy writings with reverence and kissed them. In anger and haste, he made his way back to confront the Ba’al HaTanya, holding the incriminating sheaf of papers aloft as evidence.
“Aha! Now the matter is clear to me! I have been doing my best, davening and pleading, attempting to intercede on behalf of the Maggid. Something was holding me back and blocking my tefillos. Now I understand the root of the matter and the cause of the Maggid’s illness! There are harsh judgments because you have let the spread of the deepest teachings of the inner Torah spread outward and this was holding back my prayers!”
The Ba’al HaTanya understood Rav Pinchas’ angry accusations and so he responded to him with the following famed moshol:
In a faraway land there lived an aged king. One day in his later years he finally had a son. The child was beloved to him and he worried and fretted over his every need and want. He worried over his health and began to suspect that perhaps one day he might need some medicine that would need to be prepared with ingredients from a distant land that were unavailable in his kingdom. He therefore ordered all the apothecaries and those learned in herbal lore to gather together various potions, medicinal herbs and salves from the world over and to safeguard them so that just in case one day there would be need of them, they would be ready at hand. Among the various remedies there was one precious potion that was extremely rare, used to cure fainting sickness.
Then one day the crown prince fainted and despite the physicians’ best efforts they could not care for him. All their attempts failed. The prince’s mouth was shut, clamped tight like a vise and nothing would pass his lips.
The king commanded that they hurry and fetch the precious rare potion. But despite their best efforts they could not pry his jaw open. They worried and fretted over the rare potion; what would happen if it spilled?
The king yelled at them, “Why are you worried about the previous potion?! My only concern and effort was for my son! Pour the whole draught into his mouth. Even if just a small drop penetrates his lips – perhaps it will save his life!”
They heeded the king’s royal decree and proceeded to pour out the entire potion. Indeed, most of the precious draught spilled onto the floor foaming and hissing, but a few small drops did manage to penetrate the prince’s clenched lips. His spirit was revived and he was healed!
The precious prince is the Jewish people, Hashem’s beloved child. For their sakes and the sake of their souls, Hashem gave us His most holy precious Torah to revive their body and soul. Despite the fact that it is so holy and precious and we do worry that perhaps it will spill on the floor and end up in undesirable places, if just a drop will penetrate and do its job, this will atone for the entire waste.
The Ba’al HaTanya concluded his parable and Rav Pinchas replied, “You have revived me and given me life. All the harsh judgments have been sweetened and now surely the holy Maggid will be healed and his strength will return!” And so it was. (As found in a handwritten manuscript by Rav Yisrael Chortkover, published in Kerem Bais Yisrael p. 7 and cited by Likkutei Imrei Pinchas Shaar Sippurim 73)
Another version of this tradition:
Rav Pinchas Koretzer was once in Mezritch and during his visit he discovered holy writings blowing in the wind among the debris and garbage, and this matter greatly pained him.
The Alter Rebbe, Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi (mechaber of the Tanya and founder of Chabad Chassidus) was present, and knowing Rav Pinchas’ angry disposition and his opposition to the spread of Toras HaChassidus in a revealed manner, he tried his best to calm and assuage his holy spirit and told him the following moshol:
There was once a mighty king who had an only son. He desired that his son rise in all manner of wisdom and train himself to gain strength and might. He sent his son off to the farthest reaches of the kingdom and beyond. He sent the prince to foreign lands over mountains and seas, to tropical islands and exotic distant lands. There, the prince would study and gather various species of plants and herbs and learn to hunt animals, birds and all manner of rare things. He would travel and visit the most distant and dangerous locales.
One day word reached the king that his one and only precious son was in mortal danger; he had become ill and was at death’s door on some far-off island. The doctors had given up hope and declared his illness terminal. Despite their best efforts they could find no cure for his strange malady.
The king spared no time and effort. He ordered his men to send out runners and to announce far and wide that whoever was learned in the art of healing and could find a cure for the crown prince should come before the king immediately.
All the greatest doctors and famed physicians, all the wisest healers and apothecaries gathered in the royal court, but despite their efforts none of them could come up with a cure to save the life of the dying prince.
Then one day a man arrived who told the king that he knew of a special cure that could surely heal the crown prince and deliver him from death’s door. However, he warned, this cure could only work by using the correct ingredient, to be found in a very rare and precious gemstone.
If that gemstone could be procured and pulverized into a fine powdered dust, and that mixed with good fine wine, and if the prince would drink this potion – he would be healed!
The king immediately issued an executive order that the greatest gemologists and geological experts be found to begin searching for this precious stone among the king’s treasure hoards. Using the various descriptions and elements that this man gave, they were to find and locate the gemstone to save the life of the dying crown prince.
The wise men gathered all the precious stones and jewels and examined them one by one, and to their great joy they did indeed discover one gemstone with the correct properties and characteristics as described to heal the prince. There was just one problem: the only such jewel was the crown jewel itself, the very gem that graced the diadem upon the king’s own crown!
At first they were overjoyed at the discovery, but once they realized that in order to create this remedy they must remove the king’s crown, unseat the stone, crush and pulverize it into powder and dust, they were greatly saddened and dismayed. They had no choice but to tell the king what they had discovered.
When the king heard that they had indeed found the gemstone, he was overjoyed. Now he could heal his one and only precious beloved son!
“Quickly remove the gemstone from the crown and pulverize it to create the potion to give my son!”
At that moment an evil report reached the king – the prince’s condition had worsened and his sickness and fever caused his mouth to be shut tight; his lips were so parched that they had stuck together and could not be pried apart! Alas! How would he now drink the precious healing potion?
The gemologists and apothecaries hesitated. They had removed the crown jewel from its setting, but why should they now pulverize it in light of this dire development? Surely the king would now not command them to destroy his own crown jewel.
When the king saw their hesitation he amazed them and bellowed, “Hurry and rest not, crush the gem as fast as you can! Prepare the potion and pour it into my son’s mouth now! It is worth destroying my precious crown jewels and pouring them down my son’s parched lips, even if they spill and are lost! So long as just one drop might by some miracle penetrate his lips and enter his mouth and save my one and only beloved son, maybe, just maybe, he will be healed!”
The ministers were amazed and said, “Your Majesty, when your son’s mouth was limp and his lips were parted, his mouth was open and he could receive food and drink, then it was worth it to lose your crown jewels to heal him, but now his lips are sealed – how was it worth destroying your crown that graced you on the throne for this?!”
The king looked at his ministers with contempt and roared, “If my son should perish, what good is my crown?! If he lives and survives, this will be my crowning achievement – that my one and only son fulfilled his father’s command and endangered himself to go and study to fulfill my royal will. He endangered his life to do my bidding until he reached this state of sickness. Now he will be healed by me and my crown!”
When Rav Pinchas Koretzer heard this moshol he was relieved and his spirit revived. It is a well-known tradition that the Mezritcher Maggid thanked the Alter Rebbe for this and felt he owed him a favor. (Hatamim p.802 and cited by Likkutei Imrei Pinchas Shaar Sippurim 74)
