The rebbe’s plea was, “Can you help me?”
Mr. Feuerstein was impressed with the rebbe’s passion and answered, “I’ll try my best.”
To this, the tzaddik (saintly sage) said, “When I was a rebbe in Klausenberg, I didn’t know what it means to try my best.
I did not know that I could walk for blocks, because every time I walked in the street, the townsfolk offered me a ride. I did not even know that I could carry my tallis and tefillin, because the people insisted on carrying them for me.
But then the war broke out and I was taken to the concentration camp. There I learned that I could try a lot. They forced me to carry stones that weighed 50 pounds and walk with them for miles in the stifling heat. There I learned what it meant to try my best.
Do you know what “try my best” really means?”
Mr. Feuerstein sat there in stunned silence, absorbing this lesson from the holy tzaddik, a message that he would never forget.