The Rabbi of Brody, Rabbi Abraham Mendel Steinberg – A Sadigurer hasid related:
R. Isaac Hamburger was once in the same town where the Besht resided. It was the first day of Sukkot and it rained so heavily that they were not able to fulfill the commandment of the Sukkah.
They told him that in the Besht’s Sukkah, it was not raining and that the hasidim were singing and dancing and fulfilling the commandment of the Sukkah amply.
So he went over and it was indeed so – it was possible to sit in it. R. Isaac Hamburger recited the Kiddush and fulfilled the commandment to eat [the amount of] an olive in the Sukkah – and the hasidim were reveling – dancing and singing.
When he finished eating, he immediately left. Hasidim asked him – “why are you running away already?” He replied: “I shall not sit in the seat of the scornful” [Psalms 1:1].
The Rabbi of Brody concluded: “See what the epitome of an opponent is – he witnessed such a miracle and afterward he permits himself to say something like that.”
I.F.
Jacob Teitelbaum