One More Thing with Pastor Tim Burchill 06.29.2026

If Not Higher
(based on the story by I. L. Peretz)

          Here’s a story I wanted to use when talking about ‘what you do when no one is looking’ yesterday.  It’s a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was saying in Matthew 6:1-6—do what you do because of who you want to be, not so that others will take notice and praise you.

          In the town of Nemirov, the people spoke in hushed and reverent tones about their rabbi.

          Every year during the season of penitential prayers before the High Holy Days, the rabbi would disappear before dawn. No one could find him. He was not in the synagogue. He was not in the study house. He was not at home.

The people whispered: "Where is the rabbi?" And then they answered their own question: "Where else could he be? He must be in heaven, pleading with God on behalf of his people."

          One day a skeptical visitor—a Litvak, a rational-minded Jew from Lithuania—heard these stories and laughed. "People don't simply ascend to heaven," he said.

          Determined to expose the superstition, he secretly hid in the rabbi's house one night. Before dawn the next morning he watched.

The rabbi rose from bed, prayed, and then did something unexpected.

He removed his rabbinic garments and dressed like a poor peasant.

Then he took an axe and slipped quietly out of town.

          The Litvak followed him through the darkness.

          Deep in the forest, the rabbi chopped down a small tree. He cut it into firewood, bundled it on his back, and carried it toward the edge of town. Eventually he stopped at a ramshackle cottage. Inside lived an elderly woman who was sick and poor. The rabbi knocked softly. "Who is there?" she called.

          "A wood seller," came the reply.

          "I have no money for wood."

          "I know," said the rabbi. "I'll sell it to you on credit."

          He entered, stacked the wood, lit the fire himself, and stayed long enough to make sure the room was warm. All the while he quietly recited the penitential prayers.

          The Litvak stood outside watching. He understood.

After that day he became one of the rabbi's followers.

          And whenever the townspeople said, "Every year our rabbi ascends to heaven," the former skeptic would answer: "If not higher."