The townspeople of Nicholsberg were not Chasidim

The townspeople of Nicholsberg were not Chasidim and unaccustomed to some of the practices of their chief Rabbi, the famed Reb Shmelke. A meeting was conveyed by the prominent members of the community to discuss his dismissal. The synagogue's caretaker overheard the meeting while he was cleaning and demanded to be allowed to speak.

"I know that our rabbi is perfectly righteous. Every morning I make the pre dawn rounds, waking the men to come to shul. Each morning I knock on the Rabbi's door. He is always up before me. For the last few week's I have found the rabbi sitting and learning with someone I have never seen. One day I asked the Rabbi who is this stranger and he told me that it is Elijah the prophet."

"Just last week," Continued the caretaker, "as I approached the rabbi's house I saw two men standing at his door. One was this frequent guest, the other wore a gold crown. I asked the rabbi who was the other visitor. He told me it was Menashe, King of Judah. It seems a Rabbi had sent a matter of Jewish law to our rabbi to adjudicate. In the town of that other rabbi lived a Chosid who had taken upon himself to smash all the images in the local church. The man was caught and hanged. There is a widow's fund in that town, but the officers refused to give her any support, saying that it was the man's own fault for getting himself killed. Our rabbi did not know what to answer until the king arrived. He explained to the rabbi that he had been reincarnated as this chosid in order to rectify the evil perpetrated when the king erected an image in the temple."

This story was told by Reb Simcha Bunem of Pischah. After telling the story he concluded, "Look at the humility of this simple caretaker. For weeks he merited to see Elijah, a feat the greatest individuals hope to accomplish once in a lifetime. It never occurred to him that something special had happened to himself, just that his rabbi was a holy man."