As told by Martin Buber in Tales of the Hasidim, The Early Masters.

The Word

This was told by Rabbi Israel of Rizhyn.    “All the pupils of my ancestor, the Great Maggid, transmitted the teachings in his name—-all except Rabbi Zusya.  And the reason for this was that Rabbi Zusya hardly ever heard his teacher’s sermon out to the end.   For at the very start, when the maggid recited the verse from the Scriptures which he was going to expound, and began with the words of the Scriptures ‘And God said,’ or ‘and God spoke,’ Rabbi Zusya was overcome with ecstasy, and screamed and gesticulated so wildly that he disturbed the peace of the round table and had to be taken out.  And then he stood in the hall or in the woodshed, beat his hands against the walls, and cried aloud: ‘And God said!’   He did not quiet down until my ancestor had finished expounding the Scriptures.  That is why he was not familiar with the sermons of the maggid.  But the truth, I tell you, I tell you, the truth is this: If a man speaks in the spirit of truth and listens in the spirit of truth, one word is enough, for with one word can the world be uplifted, and with one word can the world be redeemed.”

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Only the Good

Once when young Zusya was in the house of his teacher, Rabbi Baer, a man came before the Great Maggid and begged him to advise and assist him in an enterprise.  Zusya saw that this man was full of sin and untouched by any breath of repentance; he grew angry, and spoke to him harshly, saying: “How can a man like yourself, a man who has committed this crime and that, have the boldness to stand before a holy countenance without shame, and without the longing to atone?”  The man left in silence, but Zusya regretted what he had said and did not know what to do.  Then his teacher pronounced a blessing over him, that from this moment on, he might see only the good in people, even if a person sinned before his very eyes.

But because Zusya’s gift of vision could not be taken from him through words spoken by man, it came to pass that from this time on he felt the sins of the people he met as his own, and blamed himself for them.

Whenever the rabbi of Rizhyn told this about Rabbi Zusya, he was likely to add: “And if all of us were like him, evil would long since have been destroyed, and death overcome, and perfection achieved.

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Suffering

When Rabbi Shmelke and his brother visited the maggid of Mezritch, they asked him about the following. “Our sages said certain words which leave us no peace because we do not understand them.

They are that men should praise and thank God for suffering just as much as for well-being, and receive it with the same joy.  Will you tell us how we are to understand this, rabbi?”

The maggid replied: “Go to the House of Study.  There you will find Zusya smoking his pipe. He will give you the explanation.”  They went to the House of Study and put their question to Rabbi Zusya.  He laughed.  “You certainly have come to the right man!  Better go to someone else rather than to me, for I have never experienced suffering.”

But the two knew that, from the day he was born to this day, Rabbi Zusya’s life had been a web of need and anguish. Then they knew what it was: to accept suffering with love.

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The Query of Queries

Before his death, Rabbi Zusya said “In the coming world, they will not ask me: ‘Why were you not Moses?’  They will ask me: ‘Why were you not Zusya?’ ”

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