Hashem Chose Us, Interruptions and All

The Tanna Dvei Eliyahu teaches that Hashem tied Himself to us with a knot, or a crown, stretching from one end of the world to the other. He left behind the 496,000 ministering angels and chose to attach Himself to Bnei Yisroel forever. Rav Shmuel of Shinova relates in Ramasayim Tzofim that Rav Moshe Reb Zalman once saw the Chozeh take a pinch of snuff during davening, as was his custom, and told him it was not proper to interrupt davening this way. The Chozeh answered with a parable. A king passing through the marketplace heard a poor fiddler playing and was so charmed that he appointed him court musician. Each day the fiddler had to stop to tune or mend his strings, sometimes for hours, while the king waited. A courtier asked whether this was not disrespectful. The fiddler answered, "The king has whole orchestras. Yet he delights in me more than in all of them. Having chosen me, he can wait while I tune my instrument. If not, he would have chosen them." So too, said the Chozeh, Hashem has thousands of angels to praise Him, yet He chose us with all our imperfections, and He can bear our interruptions to prepare ourselves for Him.