The Broken Window

Late one night a glazier received a telephone call from the Rebbe. Someone, he explained, had broken a window of his in the dead of night, because he objected to one of Bobov's policies. Unless the glass was repaired at once, people would notice it in the morning, become upset and be pulled into machlokes. The Rebbe felt it must be fixed immediately.

The glazier thought at first that it was a prank and hung up on the Rebbe several times. Only after repeated calls did he realize that it really was the Rebbe. He did the work that night. The Rebbe then wished to pay him, but the glazier refused to take payment and asked only that the Rebbe attend his simchas. The Rebbe accepted, with one condition: the glazier must vow never to tell anyone about the shattered glass.

From then until the end of his life the Rebbe came to the glazier's simchas, although the man was not even a chossid. The chassidim wondered why the Rebbe went to these simchas when he was not so particular about other people's. After the Rebbe's petira, the glazier came to be menacham avel. He said that now that the Rebbe had passed away he was released from his vow, and he told the whole story.