It was the custom of the Shpoler Zeide to closet himself in his study for some time before the blowing of the shofar. What he did there, no one knew. Once, a chasid decided to find out. He crept up to a nook near the Rebbe's private room with out being noticed and peered through a crack.
There he saw the Shpoler Zeide lying on the floor, weeping bitterly, "Master of the Universe! What do you want of Your People Israel. If I did not see with my own eyes how many mitzvot and good deeds they perform, I would not believe it possible in this dark and bitter exile to fulfill even one mitzva! Especially in this benighted world, where Satan himself prances among them, where all things that provoke fleshly desires are before their eyes, while the warnings of retribution You have hidden in some moralistic tome. You can be certain that if You had arranged things the other way around -- with the place of retribution in front of their eyes, and all fleshly desires hidden away in some learned book -- then not a single Jew would ever do anything wrong!"
The Shpoler Zeide then rose from the floor and walked to the synagogue, where he sighed repeatedly, and proceeded with the blowing of the shofar.
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