Rabbi Mordechai of Neshchiz longed for a tallit katan made of cloth from Israel. When the special wool finally arrived, he asked a student to prepare the tallit for use. Unfortunately, while preparing the tallit, the student accidentally folded the cloth twice and instead of one neckhole he cut two, rendering it unfit for use.
The student was mortified and feared that his teacher would be angry with him.
Rabbi Mordechai did not reprimand his pupil nor exhibit any anger towards him. Instead, he smiled and said, “Good job, my son! You carried out the task perfectly. You see, I really need two tallits; one to fulfil the mitzvah, and the other to put Reb Mordechai to the test, to see if he can overcome his ‘negative inclination’ and not get angry.”
In his classic work, Likutei Torah, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi notes a curious expression the Torah uses when introducing the laws of animal sacrifices. Instead of saying, “a person from (among) you who will offer a sacrifice”, the verse states “a person who will offer from you a sacrifice” implying that the sacrifice is not something extraneous that a person gives to God, but is something we are requested to give of ourselves to God.
