The Wall That Fell Beside the Crib

Chassidim relate that on a certain Motzaei Shabbos Rav Meir of Premishlan, called the Gadol, was riding through the countryside in the dark. His driver turned to ask where they were going. Rav Meir answered calmly that he was on his way to the Baal Shem Tov in Mezhibuzh, to join him for the Melaveh Malkah meal. The driver objected that the town was far away. Rav Meir told him not to worry, since the road would be shortened for them, and the villages flew past until they arrived in Mezhibuzh.

The Baal Shem Tov greeted him as if his coming were nothing unusual. Rav Meir explained that he had come for the meal and also with a cure for the Besht's daughter Adel, who was unwell. He had one condition: the meat meal must be cooked by Adel herself.

The Baal Shem Tov answered that his daughter had been bedridden and very weak, and he went in to ask her. As he spoke, she felt the pain recede. She rose with new strength and went toward the kitchen. Her two small sons, Baruch and Ephraim, were lying together in a crib by the wall.

One of the boys began to cry, and then the second. Adel gathered both into her arms to calm them and carried them out of the room. In that very moment the wall above the crib gave way, and stones piled over it. Both children were unharmed.

When the Baal Shem Tov saw it, he remarked that Heaven had sent the right messenger. Rav Meir had really come, he said, to restore Adel to health and to rescue her sons.