There was a very special Yid who lived a few hundred years before the Baal Shem Tov. The story goes that this Yid did a very powerful mitzvah around the time when he became a “bar mitzvah” that had a dramatic effect in the Heavenly worlds. After some time, the Heavenly creations seemed to have forgotten exactly what that mitzvah was – yet they still felt the lingering effects of it! Eliyahu Hanavi observed this, and wanted to figure out what the Yid had done so many years before that caused this huge tumult in the upper worlds. So Eliyahu Hanavi decides he’s going to do some investigating to find out what the mitzvah was!
Eliyahu travels down to this world, takes the form of a person, and pays a visit to the man. He knocks on his door and he tells him that he is Eliyahu Hanavi. “In the Heavens they talk about your greatness because of something that you did when you were younger, and nobody knows what that mitzvah was. Please tell me, what did you do?” The Yid refuses to divulge any information. He responded by saying that the mitzvah was between him and Hashem. Eliyahu begs him, and promises him salvations and blessings if he tells him. The man didn’t budge, and told him that no matter what you promise me – what I did was for Hashem’s sake and He alone knows, and nobody else needs to know.
The Baal Shem Tov told his students that his own holy soul was a gilgul, a reincarnation, of the soul of this Yid!
We live in a world where everyone is involved in everyone else’s business. Everyone knows what everyone does, and we often share our good deeds with people around us. We learn from this story that once in a while, it is very special to do a mitzvah for Hashem and for Hashem only, without telling anyone else in the world! Every Yid has a private and personal relationship with Hashem, and one way to build that relationship is the way the Baal Shem Tov did – by doing a mitzvah and telling nobody – keeping it as a special moment between you and your Creator.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 4.