(This story was told to R. Jacob Flanzgraben by R. Samuel Engel)
R. Samuel Engel, the Radomishler Rabbi (a close relative of R. Joseph Engel) was orphaned at a young age. His mother was a poor widow.
The child showed amazing abilities but he was very wild. He could sometimes spend all night studying diligently and at other times entire days would go by without him even looking at the shape of an aleph.
His mother traveled to the Sanzer Rabbi – the [author of the] Divrei Hayim, and she took him along. She cried profusely at the Sanzer’s and bemoaned the fact that she had such a precious boy with great talents – but who was very wild.
The Sanzer called him over and told him: “Listen, child – you should obey your mother – and if you will listen to your mother then you will grow up to be a king in Israel.”
And commanded him to heed the following:
1) Do not learn to write until you are thirteen
2) Always pray from a prayer-book
3) You should look after your mother.
When R. Samuel Engel told this story he said “I obeyed the Sanzer and never regretted it.”
I.F.
R. Jacob Flanzgraben
A student of R. Samuel Engel
