One rabbi had an only daughter, Chana. She was beautiful and smart, and, to everyone’s surprise, she knew the Torah well and recited prayers by heart. Many smart, pious and educated young men sought her hand in marriage, but the rabbi could not choose a worthy groom for his daughter.
One day the rabbi, rabbi and their daughter Chana dreamed of the rabbi’s father, Reb Nachman, and said that the girl should marry a guy who worked at a nearby mill, and his name was Shmulik. The rabbi went to the mill and asked the worker Shmulik. A ragged and stupid-looking brute came out to him. The rabbi was discouraged, but still tried to talk to him, but the guy turned out to be extremely stupid. The rabbi asks if you have studied anything, but he hardly knows how to read and write and doesn’t even know how to pray. Nevertheless, fulfilling the will of his father, the rabbi decided to take Shmulik with him. He offered the groom a decent dress, but he refused to take off his rags. There is nothing to do. The rabbi got into the cart, made the groom sit next to him, and they went to the bride.
Seeing such a groom, the bride fainted, her relatives and friends burst into tears, and the groom stood and smiled. They began to prepare for the wedding. The rabbi sighs, the rabbi misses, the bride cries incessantly. Suddenly the door opens and a shepherd comes in with a long stick in his hands and asks:
- Where is the groom? We are comrades; we worked for the same owner.
Seeing the groom, he began to hug and kiss him. The bride and relatives, when they saw what a friend the groom had, became even more saddened. They began to ask the shepherd to at least persuade Shmulik to take off his work clothes and put on clean ones.
“Now,” says the shepherd and asks to bring silk clothes and shtreiml.
They brought me an expensive dress. The groom changed his clothes, and then a miracle happened. With the change of clothes, Shmulik also changed. He was all lit up. His face became meaningful, his eyes intelligent, and he began to interpret the Torah so wisely and deeply that even the rabbi did not understand everything. Everyone stood spellbound, amazed at the greatness of the groom’s wisdom. The bride was overjoyed and stood whispering prayers of thanks.
Only then did the rabbi realize that his son-in-law was not an ordinary person, but a nistar, one of the thirty-six secret righteous people.
The wedding was very solemn. The guests ate, drank and rejoiced at the happiness of the bride and groom.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru