A Blessing He Could Not Return

The Tosher Rebbe related the well-known story of how the Be’er Mayim Chaim once collected tzedoka for hachnossas kalla, to help marry off a poor orphan. As he approached one of the simpler, rougher elements among the Jews of Czernowitz, a known troublemaker was seized by a feeling that moved him to donate the entire sum. The tzaddik blessed him that he should merit to feel the light and sanctity of Shabbos.

When Shabbos came, the simple Jew was so overcome by its sanctity that he could not bear it. He was so unaccustomed to such kedusha that it almost drove him out of his mind. He went back to the Be’er Mayim Chaim and asked him to take back the berocha. The tzaddik answered that a gift bestowed by Heaven can be neither taken away nor given back.

Instead he advised the man to stay with him, and he would instruct him in avodas Hashem. The man did so. He grew and grew in yiras shomayim, and slowly he was able to receive the light of Shabbos properly within himself. Day after day he rose to higher spiritual levels, until he himself became a great tzaddik. He received kvitlech (petitions), blessed many Jews, performed miracles and brought salvation to others.