You Saw Your Malochim

Rav Moshe Mordechai, the late Kopyczynitzer Rebbe and a descendant of the Malach, passed on an account he had heard from his father. Rav Meshulam Feivish of Kremenitz, author of Mishnas Chachamim, was so constant and devoted in his learning that he stayed away from his daughter’s wedding to the Malach, so as not to lose time from Torah.

Afterward Rav Feivish learned how great his new mechutan, the Maggid, really was, and resolved to go and visit him. He came on a Friday afternoon, hoping for an invitation to the Shabbos meals. The Maggid instructed the Malach, his son, to have his wife’s father join them as a guest for the seudah that night.

As the Malach entered the house with Rav Feivish, he began singing Sholom Aleichem, greeting the malochim that escort a Jew home from shul on Friday night. Just then Rav Feivish fainted. After he was revived, the Malach said to him, “You saw your malochim. If you had seen my malochim, if you had seen my malochim...”

Chassidim understood that Rav Feivish had truly beheld the malochim who accompanied him home from shul that week. Had he seen those who accompany his son-in-law, they said, those around him might not have succeeded in reviving him.