Once, in Sukkot evening, when R. Haim of Sanz, one of the wise men of Brody, was sitting alone with his son in his Sukkah – he spoke against the Besht – As one shouldn’t speak! Afterward, they went to sleep. Very early in the morning he woke up and went to the Mikveh. On the way, he met the Besht.
The Besht asked him: “What? You sit with the holy guests (ushpizin) in the Sukkah and you speak such slander?”
R. Hayim wondered how the Besht knew about the whole story. No one else was with them in the Sukkah and he knew that his son was still asleep. He asked him: “Who told you this?”
The Besht replied that an angel told him. R. Hayim Sanzer asked further: “How is an angel allowed to speak slander?”
The Besht said to him: “Yes! If you do good deeds, then a good angel is created and it certainly does only good deeds and such an angel will not speak slander. But if you do bad deeds – a bad angel is created, and it did indeed relate to me the slander.
I.F.
Rabbi Teomim
