Digital Maggid
On the first day of Sukkos a rumor was circulating amongst the Hasids of Ropshitz that Rebbe Naftali had revealed Elijah on the first night of Sukkos (the night before).
When the rumor reached Rebbe Naftali, he was highly indignant. Since he was a man of truth, he could not suffer (the notion that) such fantastic fabrications were circulating around the Hasidic world. So from mincha to ma’ariv he called a number his associates and said to them: “You should know that the rumor that has been circulating amongst the Hasids that I revealed Elijah on the first night of Sukkos is a total falsehood. First of all, what makes me worthy of revealing Elijah? Second, how can any of you believe such a thing of me?”
“It means, Rebbe,” one of them replied, “that there was obviously a witness who was standing under your sukkah and heard you chatting with someone, but since you were alone in the sukkah, with whom could you have been talking but with Elijah the Prophet?”
“Fools!” Rebbe Naftali replied with a smile. “The night was frosty and I was shivering the whole time with the cold. I was only talking to myself. ‘Naftali, how can you lie down to sleep here? You could just freeze!’ And you call that “revealing Elijah?”
