A Lowly Soul Lifted High

Rav Yechiel Michel of Zlotshuv related that when he first came before the holy Baal Shem Tov, the Baal Shem Tov asked that he be honored. Then he told those present, “Know that he is the son of Rav Yitzchok of Drohobitch. Heaven gave his father a soul so small and lowly that almost no one in this generation has been given one like it. Yet he lifted that soul to staggering heights, to the level of the holy Tanna Rav Shimon bar Yochai.”