The Fish at Mezritch

It is told that Rav Yaakov Yitzchok came to Mezritch for the first time as a young man, before anyone knew him as the Chozeh of Lublin. He had come to learn from the Maggid, Rav Dov Ber. He arrived on Friday afternoon and went straight to the kitchen, where the cooks were preparing the Shabbos meal. He asked their permission to keep his custom of taking part in preparing the fish he would eat on Shabbos. He then took a piece of fish, salted it, set it down and left. His practice was to do this after Shacharis, wrapped in his tallis and tefillin, meditating on special yichudim.

The Maggid's talmidim who saw this wondered. How could the newcomer imagine that this very piece would reach his plate? All the fish was cooking together and the waiters would serve it out to whoever sat at the Rebbe's table. They took his action to be strange, or even arrogant.

One of those talmidim was a young man whom his friends called Zalmanyu, who would later be known as Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya. He tied a short thread around the salted piece so that he could follow it. The newcomer, who had left the kitchen, knew nothing about the thread.

When Shabbos came and the fish was served, Zalmanyu kept his eyes on the waiters. The marked piece was served to a stranger who sat beside the newcomer. But as soon as the man lifted it, he began to tremble feverishly and could not eat. He pushed his plate over to the newcomer, who ate the fish, and the man handed him his own salted portion. "That is when I knew I was in the presence of someone great," Rav Shneur Zalman said. In this way he put to rest every doubt about his new colleague.