Reb Mikheleh returned home happy that he had come by a beautiful etrog possessing all the qualities that are lauded in an etrog. He went into his sukkah to fix something and returned to his solitude room.
He sat down in his chair and placed the etrog before him and ruminated on this precept that God had given the Jewish people to observe during these holy days of Sukkot, a holiday adorned with a multitude of precepts to observe.
His wife the rebbetzin heard that her husband had been to market. She went into his room.
She saw the glow in his face and the ecstasy emanating from his entire being. The rebbetzin thought he had brought home all the festival victuals. She said to him, “I see that you are happy. You must have brought us the festival provisions. Give them to me and I will prepare them, for it is nearly time.”
The righteous man rose from his chair and put his hand on his eyes and said, “Praised be the blessed and sublime Name for bestowing His grace on me and fulfilling my every need.”
The rebbetzin stood there waiting for her husband to deliver. He sat back down in his chair and told her that he had been privileged to acquire a kosher etrog.
She asked him, “How did you have money to get an etrog?” He said to her, “I sold my tefillin for a gold dinar and bought an etrog.” She said to him, “In that case, give me the change.” He said to her, “They didn’t give me any change. All the money they gave me for my tefillin, I gave for my etrog.” He started to enumerate with steadily mounting enthusiasm all the virtues of the etrog.
The rebbetzin swallowed her tears and said, “I want to see this great find of yours.” The righteous man took out the etrog and unwrapped it. It radiated its beauty and emitted its fragrance, a feast for the eyes and truly fit for the benediction.
The woman said, “Give it to me so I can have a good look at it.” She reached out and picked up the etrog.
She thought of the pitiful state of her house and the distress of her children who had nothing to eat, and how the festival of Sukkot was nearly here and she had nothing with which to make it festive. Grief drove the strength from her hands, and the etrog slipped and fell. And having fallen, its stem broke. And the stem having broken, the etrog was no longer fit for ritual use.
The righteous man saw that his etrog was no longer fit for the benediction. He stretched out his two holy hands in despair and said, “Tefillin I have not and etrog I have not; all I have left is anger. But I will not be angry, but I will not be angry.”
Now that Hasid who told me this story said to me: I asked my rebbe, “Is that really how it happened?” And my rebbe said to me, “That is how it happened, exactly as I have told it to you.” And my rebbe also said to me, “This story — the daughter-in-law of the Holy Preacher, wife of Rabbi Yosef of Yampol, told it to the father of her son-in-law, Rabbi Baruch of Mezbizh. On the very day that this incident occurred she had been in the Holy Preacher’s home and had seen it with her own eyes. And when she told it to Rabbi Baruch the Tzaddik of Mezbizh, Rabbi Baruch, father of her son-in-law, said to her, ‘Mother of my daughter-in-law, tell me the story again from beginning to end. This is a story worth hearing twice.’”
Fable of The Goat
The tale is told of an old man who groaned from his heart. The doctors were sent for, and they advised him to drink goat’s milk. He went out and bought a she-goat and brought her into his home. Not many days passed before the goat disappeared. They went out to search for her but did not find her. She was not in the yard and not in the garden, not on the roof of the house of study and not by the spring, not in the hills and not in the fields. She tarried several days and then returned by herself; and when she returned, her udder was full of a great deal of milk, the taste of which was as the taste of Eden. Not just once, but many times she disappeared from the house. They would go out in search of her and would not find her until she returned by herself with her udder full of milk that was sweeter than honey and whose taste was the taste of Eden.
One time the old man said to his son, “My son, I desire to know where she goes and whence she brings this milk which is sweet to my palate and a balm to all my bones.”
His son said to him, “Father, I have a plan.”
He said to him, “What is it?”
The son got up and brought a length of cord. He tied it to the goat’s tail.
His father said to him, “What are you doing, my son?”
He said to him, “I am tying a cord to the goat’s tail, so that when I feel a pull on it I will know that she has decided to leave, and I can catch the end of the cord and follow her on her way.” The old man nodded his head and said to him, “My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will rejoice.”
The youth tied the cord to the goat’s tail and minded it carefully. When the goat set off, he held the cord in his hand and did not let it slacken until the goat was well on her way and he was following her. He was dragged along behind her until he came to a cave. The goat went into the cave, and the youth followed her, holding the cord. They walked thus for an hour or two, or maybe even a day or two. The goat wagged her tail and bleated, and the cave came to an end.
When they emerged from the cave, the youth saw lofty mountains, and hills full of the choicest fruit, and a fountain of living waters that flowed down from the mountains; and the wind wafted all manner of perfumes. The goat climbed up a tree by clutching at the ribbed leaves. Carob fruits full of honey dropped from the tree, and she ate of the carobs and drank of the garden’s fountain.
The youth stood and called to the wayfarers: “I adjure you, good people, tell me where I am, and what is the name of this place?”
They answered him, “You are in the Land of Israel, and you are close by Safed.”
The youth lifted up his eyes to the heavens and said, “Blessed be the Omnipresent, blessed be He who has brought me to the Land of Israel.” He kissed the soil and sat down under the tree.
He said, “Until the day breathe and the shadows flee away, I shall sit on the hill under this tree. Then I shall go home and bring my father and mother to the Land of Israel.” As he was sitting thus and feasting his eyes on the holiness of the Land of Israel, he heard a voice proclaiming:
“Come, let us go out to greet the Sabbath Queen.”
And he saw men like angels, wrapped in white shawls, with boughs of myrtle in their hands, and all the houses were lit with a great many candles. He perceived that the eve of Sabbath would arrive with the darkening, and that he would not be able to return. He uprooted a reed and dipped it in gallnuts, from which the ink for the writing of the Torah scrolls is made. He took a piece of paper and wrote a letter to his father:
“From the ends of the earth I lift up my voice in song to tell you that I have come in peace to the Land of Israel. Here I sit, close by Safed, the holy city, and I imbibe its sanctity. Do not inquire how I arrived here but hold on to this cord which is tied to the goat’s tail and follow the footsteps of the goat; then your journey will be secure, and you will enter the Land of Israel.”
The youth rolled up the note and placed it in the goat’s ear. He said to himself: When she arrives at Father’s house, Father will pat her on the head, and she will flick her ears. The note will fall out, Father will pick it up and read what is written on it. Then he will take up the cord and follow the goat to the Land of Israel.