- The Ba’al Shem Tov had a chassid by the name of Herschel. He was a simple commoner and excelled in his fear of Heaven. For his livelihood, he dug wells. From the day that he began to have intelligent understanding, he would never eat his bread with any sort of jam, eating only bread and salt instead. He provided bread and jam for his family to the best of his ability. But as for himself, he had never even tasted meat in his life.
Herschel knew the Five Books of the Torah and the Psalms by heart even though he did not know the meaning of the words well. There were places that he did not understand, but he would always repeat the letters of those words while working and walking.
Referring to him, the Ba’al Shem Tov said, “Herschel the well-digger has consciousness of Above!”
The Unsuspecting Hidden Tzaddik
