Pull My Sleeve

The Chozeh received one more special assignment from his rebbe, Rav Shmelka of Nikolsberg. It was his job to remind the Rebbe if he lost his dveikus. Sometimes the learning grew so intense that Rav Shmelka worried that, in concentrating on the technical points of the sugya, he might lose his dveikus to Hashem. So he asked his prize pupil a favor. "If it seems to you that I am so deeply engrossed in the learning that I have lost my dveikus to the Creator, wake me and remind me at once by pulling on my sleeve."

Once, while the talmidim were absorbed with Rav Shmelka in a particularly deep and difficult sugya, it seemed to the Chozeh that Rav Shmelka had indeed lapsed in his dveikus. But as soon as he moved toward the rosh yeshivah to pull his sleeve, Rav Shmelka recovered himself. He turned to the Chozeh and said affectionately, "Do not worry, my son. I reminded myself."