The Second-Hand Tefillin
Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev insisted on buying one particular pair of tefillin because of what Reb Zusha and Reb Elimelech had once done with it.
A story ofRav Meshulem Zusha Weissblum of Anipoliהרב משולם זוסיא בן אליעזר ליפמן ווייסבלוםProfile ›
It is told that Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev once visited the city’s burial society to buy a pair of tefillin. The society sold the tefillin of the departed to raise funds, and the Rebbe looked through the pairs on offer and chose one. The head of the society would not sell it until he heard why.
“These,” said the Berditchever, “belonged to a man whom Reb Zusha and Reb Elimelech once awakened.” In their years of wandering, he explained, the brothers would stage a conversation in the evening within earshot of their host. Reb Elimelech played the Rebbe, and Reb Zusha, weeping, played a sinner who confessed that he had never had his tefillin checked. When at last he did, the scribe found that the parchments inside were missing.
The host, listening nearby, realized that he too had never checked his tefillin. He ran for them, opened the boxes and found them empty. He was shaken, and the brothers saw that he wished to mend it.
Reb Elimelech told Reb Zusha to write new parshiyos and, as he wrote, to aim his thoughts at drawing down the light that suits one who has never kept this mitzvah. Reb Zusha wrote with all his heart and returned the tefillin. The light was more than the man could bear. He moved to Berditchev and passed away there soon after, and in time his tefillin reached the burial society, where the Rebbe found them.
Source: Sipurei Chassidim (Rav S. Y. Zevin); English: A Treasury of Chassidic Tales, tr. Uri Kaploun (ArtScroll). The rendition adapted by Y. Tilles appears as Ascent of Safed weekly story 790.
Reb Zusha never pointed at his host. He spoke about his own tefillin, and the man heard himself. When you see a fault in someone you care about, try this once this week: begin with your own. Tell a friend or a child about a time you slipped and what you did about it. Do it without a speech and without looking at the other person. Honest words about yourself open a door that rebuke tends to close.