The Toldos once came to visit the Besht. Before he went in to see the Besht, he saw a handsome young man hanging out in the Synagogue – with an extraordinarily majestic appearance. This impressed him greatly. [Thereupon,] he went over to him, and gave him shalom [i.e. he shook his hand and greeted him with the traditional shalom aleichem greeting] and asked: “Young man, where are you from?” The young man answered: “If you will tell me where you surmise I am from, I will tell you.” The Toldos asked him again, and he repeated the same answer.

Eventually, the Toldos told him: “When a shochet [ritual slaughterer] is appointed, they ask him: ‘What is your salary?’ The same question is raised with a rabbi – ‘what is your salary?’ [literally: for how much does the Rav/shochet sit]? On what kind of parnassa [livelihood] does God ‘sit’ [i.e. what sustains Him]? There is a verse that addresses this: “But You are the Holy One, enthroned, the Praise of Israel,” [Psalms 22:4].

What does this verse mean? When two Jews come together – one Jew asks the other: ‘How do you do?’ The Jew answers: ‘Praised is God!’ This is what the verse means, God sits on [i.e. is sustained by] the praises of the Nation of Israel.”

Later, when the Toldot went into the Besht, he related what had happened to him. [Thereupon] the Besht requested – ask the young man to join us. But when he went looking for him, he did not find anyone. [Whereupon] the Besht remarked: “This was certainly Elijah the Prophet. Therefore, he did not want to tell you where he is from until you told him your Torah.”

I.F.

Aizik Bronstein