No One Immerses Before Me

The Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz once met the shamash of the Sadigura shul in Teveria, where the Divrei Yechezkel davened during his visits to Eretz Yisroel. The shamash told him that his father had been shamash before him.

The Divrei Yechezkel had asked to immerse in the shul's mikvah, on condition that it first be drained and cleaned and then refilled with fresh water. “No one must immerse before me,” he had ordered. The shamash's father did as he was told, but he wondered at the strange request, thinking, “How would he even know?” He decided to test the Rebbe. He drained and refilled the mikvah, and took a quick dip himself. After drying off, he invited the Rebbe to use the clean mikvah.

A few moments later he heard the Rebbe's loud voice demanding, “Who dipped in this mikvah before me?” Shaking with embarrassment and shame, the shamash admitted what he had done. “Do you have any children?” the tzaddik thundered. “No,” the shamash stammered. “Then I bless you that by next year you should have a baby boy.”

“I am that son,” the shamash told the Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz, who was delighted by the tale of the Divrei Yechezkel and his middos.