The Hidden Tzaddik and the Slap

It is told that Rav Bunim, a storekeeper in Krakow, noticed that business had improved ever since a young man named Dov came to work for him. Dov was a stranger in the city whom no one knew, and when he asked for the job he set only one condition: that he be allowed to go to the shul morning and evening to daven. Rav Bunim put the good fortune down to Dov's diligence.

One morning a crowd of customers filled the store, and Rav Bunim was overwhelmed without his helper, who was still in shul. After half an hour had passed, he lost patience and went to fetch him himself, telling himself that he would say nothing if Dov was still davening. When he burst into the shul, he found Dov gazing at the paintings on the ceiling. His temper flared. He walked up and struck Dov hard across the cheek, so loudly that everyone turned to look. Rav Bunim was ashamed and hurried back to his customers.

Dov quietly took off his tefillin, wound the straps, put them in their case and left the shul for the last time. He went straight to the Rav of Krakow, Rav Nosson Nota, who was a close friend of his, to say farewell.

"Why are you leaving me?" the Megaleh Amukos asked, weeping. When he saw that his words made no difference, he asked that they at least part with words of Torah, as friends should. He explained that he was working on his sefer Megaleh Amukos, in which he had written 252 explanations of the verse in Va'eschanan, "Do not continue to speak to Me about this matter," a number that equals the value of "Rav lach." Could Dov offer one more explanation of the verse in which Hashem refused Moshe's plea to enter Eretz Yisroel?

"Yes," said Dov. "There is one hidden explanation that is not in your sefer. Four holy beasts carry the heavenly chariot, and Hashem's throne has four legs. Moshe wanted to enter Eretz Yisroel so that through its holiness he could become the fourth leg. Hashem told him to say no more, 'Rav lach,' it is enough. The letters of the word 'badavar' stand for 'Ben Dovid beregel revi'is,' the son of Dovid is the fourth leg. Hashem told Moshe to stop praying because the fourth leg was to be King Dovid." The first three, of course, were Avrohom, Yitzchok and Yaakov. With these words Dov took his leave of the Megaleh Amukos.

Meanwhile Rav Bunim understood that Dov would never come back, and he regretted his hasty temper. Dov had been loyal and hard-working. How could he make up for shaming him in public? He went to the Megaleh Amukos with his trouble, and found that the Rav already knew everything.

"Your worker did not even feel your slap," said Rav Nosson Nota. "It meant nothing to him. The one you hurt is me. Through what you did I lost a dear friend, a companion and an equal. He is already far from here, and I will never see him again. All I have left of him are the words of Torah he spoke before he went, and they ease my pain." It is said that Dov was one of the hidden tzaddikim, the Nistar.