My Hand Was in the Mikveh This Morning

Once, when the Rebbe was in the Marienbad resort, he was hosted by Rav Binyomin Leitner. In honor of his important guest, Rav Binyomin bought new cutlery and fine dishes. Unaccustomed to the ways of the Belzer Rebbe and other tzaddikim, he was dismayed to see the Rebbe eating with his hands.

Mistakenly thinking that this was a stringency, and that perhaps the Rebbe was worried about the kashrus of the utensils, he assured the tzaddik that he himself had seen to it that the new cutlery was immersed in the mikveh. "Why, I toiveled the keilim myself just yesterday," he explained.

"Fine, fine," said the Rebbe, "but my hand was toiveled in the mikveh just this very morning."