A Limitless Treasure

The disciples of the Maggid of Mezeritch had begged their master many times to show them Elijah the Prophet. Their persistence paid off; when a gathering of poritzim, wealthy Polish landowners, was being held, the Maggid agreed.
The Maggid instructed his disciples to stand in a certain location and watch the poritzim ride by. The third poritz, he informed them, would be Elijah the Prophet. "If you are worthy," the Maggid added, "you will even merit to hear words of Torah from his lips."

The disciples followed the Maggid's instructions. They waited in the exact spot the Maggid had indicated. When the third poritz rode by they hesitantly approached his carriage. True, he looked like an ordinary, non-Jewish Polish poritz, but hadn't the Maggid declared that he Elijah the prophet?

Addressing him in Polish, they deferentially asked if they could speak with his lordship as they had an important matter to discuss. To their surprise the "poritz" responded with insults and curses, after which he rode off to join the other poritzim.

The bewildered and heartbroken disciples returned to the Maggid. They told him that they had seen Elijah the Prophet, for they didn't doubt for a moment that the poritz was the prophet. But when they asked to speak with him he responded with a barrage of deprecations.

The Maggid's response was unexpected. "You deserved the treatment he gave you! You were certain, for I gave you all the signs, that you were standing in the very presence of Elijah the Prophet. You should have addressed him in the Holy Tongue! You should have said, 'Bless us!' instead of speaking to him in Polish and timidly asking the 'poritz' for an audience. If you could still relate to him as a poritz after I told you that he is Elijah the Prophet, you deserve what you got!"

The Torah (in Deuteronomy) states, "You are a holy people to G-d your G-d." Every Jew is holy. Every Jew is, as the Baal Shem Tov taught, a trove of unlimited treasures.

But it's not enough to know in our heads that a fellow Jew is holy, that he has a wealth of goodness and G-dliness within him. It's insufficient to believe with absolutely certainty that what the Torah and great Jewish teachers of all generations have said about the worth of every Jew is true.

We have to relate to our brother or sister not according to what appearances tell us. From the beginning our entire interaction has to be in accordance with his or her true, goodly and holy nature.

Then, surely, we will merit to see Elijah the Prophet - the harbinger of the Messianic Era - and ask of him, "Bless us."


Additional Thoughts
The sigh of a Jew over the suffering of another Jew breaks all the barriers of the Accusers, and the joy with which one rejoices in another's happiness and blesses him, is as acceptable by G-d as the prayer of the High Priest in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur.

Reb Elimelech of Linznsk related from the Maggid: "Do you know what they say in Heaven? Love of a fellow Jew means loving the utterly wicked like the perfectly saintly."

"G-d forgoes love of G-d in favor of love of the Jewish people," Rabbi Shneur Zalman declared.