Overburdening Eliyahu HaNavi

After Rav Shmelke's passing, the Apta Rav went to comfort his widow and to hear any wondrous tales she would relate about her husband, olav hashalom.

The widow told him how, in the middle of his nightly learning, Rav Shmelke's candle burned low and went out. In distress, he walked out to seek a candle, forgetting that he was on the second floor. He stepped onto the balcony and saw a person holding a candle coming toward him. He thanked the stranger profusely, went back in and rekindled his light. Then, in that very moment, it struck him that he was on the second floor. Who could have come toward him from ground level, and who could have handed him a candle?

He concluded that it must have been Eliyahu HaNavi, and the thought that he had burdened and troubled Eliyahu HaNavi to bring a candle to him, the lowly Rav Shmelke, troubled him to the point of tears, distress and despondency. It never occurred to him how highly his Torah study must have been valued in Shamayim for Eliyahu to be sent. His humility was so great that all he thought was how he must have burdened the Navi.