Rebbe Eliezer was known as the wisest scholar in all the lands. Other Rebbes would travel to learn from him. Once, a Rebbe from as far away as Lublin came to visit. He asked Rebbe Eliezer: “Teach me what I must know of the world?” Rebbe Eliezer asked him to accompany him to a flowing river outside. “Gaze into the river,” Rebbe Eliezer asked. The man did so and after many moments of silence, responded, “I see, all things are a flowing! All things are one! I understand the universe!” Rebbe Eliezer nodded, then pushed the man into the river. “Yes,” Rebbe Eliezer noted as he watched the man struggle to shore, “But that’s no excuse for not learning how to swim.”
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One day Rebbe Eliezer came across his people fishing at a large lake. The village was suffering a famine and they were desperate for food. They asked the Rebbe to bless their fishing lures and as soon as the Rebbe did this, on the next cast one of the men caught a fish so large it would feed the village. They presented the fish to the Rebbe who immediately tossed it back into the lake. “Why have you done this?” they demanded but the Rebbe only winked and walked away. Later they would learn that he hated seafood.
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It has been said, if a man brought the Rebbe one loaf of bread, he would find in the mourning he had two. If a man brought the Rebbe one sack of grain, in the mourning he’d find he had two. A clever man in the village thought about this long and hard, and one day gave the Rebbe his wife. The next mourning, the man woke up to find he was still alone in his bed. The Rebbe and the woman meanwhile fell in love and had ten children. The Rebbe was always pulling practical jokes like that.
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If the Rebbe hated one thing it was cheats. In a game of Crazy Eights, the Rebbe noted one man was dealing from the bottom of the deck to make his hand more favorable. The Rebbe conspired to teach the cheat a lesson so he invited him to his home in the woods. “This is so lovely,” the cheat said upon arriving at the Rebbe’s home. “Come with me to the river,” Rebbe Eliezer suggested, “So I might teach you about the world.” But the cheat knew about the Rebbe’s habit of pushing people into rivers so he refused. “Suit yourself,” the Rebbe replied, and he walked alone to the river. There, while wading in its current, he stumbled across a treasure of innumerable value.
Meanwhile, back at the home, the man was eaten by a bear. “You see what happens when you cheat?” the Rebbe exclaimed. “You stop trusting. If this man had trusted me, he’d have a treasure and not have been eaten by a bear.” Of course that was only half-true as there was a bear down by the river as well that Rebbe Eliezer had planned to feed the cheat to if he came with him, but his point was still a good one.
