The Hungarian Wine

Translated by Avraham Greenbaum from Tzaddik:
A Portrait of Rabbi Nachman
Chayei Moharan 260.

"Once, an important trader was traveling with a consignment of fine Hungarian wine. In the course of the journey his assistant and the carriage driver said to him, 'Here we are traveling along with all this wine. It is a hard journey and we're suffering. Give us a little taste of the wine.' He agreed to let them have a small taste.

A few days later the assistant happened to be sitting with a party of drinkers in a small town. The people he was with were drinking wine and praising the wine extravagantly. They said it was Hungarian. The assistant said, 'Let me have a taste.'

"They gave him some and he said, 'This isn't fine Hungarian wine at all!'

"They were highly offended and told him to get out. But he said, 'I know very well this wine isn't Hungarian, because I was with a wine merchant who really did have Hungarian wine, and he gave me some to try. I know what it really tastes like.' But they paid no attention to him.

"However, in the future," the Rebbe concluded, "when the Mashiach comes, then they will know. The time will come for them to serve the 'fine old wine' stored up for the righteous.[1] Other people they will be able to fool. They will give them inferior Romanian wines, Wallachsians and Strovitsarians, and tell them this is the fine old vintage wine. But they won't be able to fool any of my followers, because we have already tasted the good wine."

© 1987 Breslov Research Institute