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Spiritually Preoccupied |
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Someone once came to R' Chaim of Sanz with a tale of woe. His daughter was getting older and he lacked the necessary funds to marry her off. R' Chaim gave him a letter of introduciton to one of his close followers, a wealthy scholar, asking him to collect funds on behalf of the unfortunate supplicant. When the rich chassid read the letter, he said to the poor man, "The study of Torah is more important than all other mitzvos. I can't give up the time from learning to help you." A few months later the wealthy chassid came to visit his Rebbe in Sanz. When he offered his hand to the Rebbe in greeting, R' Chaim refused to take it. R' Chaim then said to him, "When the Torah calls the person who met Joseph the man, Rashi explains that it was the angel Gabriel. When the Torah says that "a man" came to wrestle with Jacob (Genesis 32:25), Rashi identifies him as the evil angel of Esau. In both cases, the Torah says only that it was a "man"; how does Rashi know which angel was which? "The answer is that when an unknown man comes forward to help Joseph who is lost, we know that it must be a good angle, like Gabriel. When Jacob met a 'man' and asked for a blessing, the man answered, 'I have no time, I must go sing praises of God' (Rashi ad loc.). Someone who has not time for others because he claims to be spiritually occupied can only be the angel of Esau." Excerpt from: The Torah Treasury, pg. 93
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