A story is told of the great Rav Shmelke of Nickolsburg who was willing to forfeit his life for the sake of any mitzvah, great or small. Every mitzvah was performed in the most beautiful manner possible. When it came to baking the matzot for Pesach he gathered all his energy to ensure that they were baked with scrupulous care and that there was not the slightest shadow of doubt that they were completely kosher. Yet, his soul would almost leave his body out of the terrible fear that he had not done everything possible in preparing the matzah. Having carried out all the complicated processes with great exactness, Rav Shmelke would then sort out all the matzot he had baked, rejecting one after another, until he selected the three finest to grace his Seder table. All the while he would shed tears of prayer blessing his Maker to prosper all these efforts; his heart was filled with anxiety lest he had somehow failed in his duty towards Him.

As he returned from the bakery one Erev Pesach bearing in his hands the three prized matzot, carefully wrapped, his face betrayed its usual concern. Perhaps after all there was something amiss. Perhaps the matzot were not properly baked according to the Torah. As he walked, one of his pupils came alongside of him, he too carrying the matzot which he had just baked, his face suffused with joy. The tzadik knew that such happiness comes only from performing a mitzvah and asked the pupil what he had done to make him rejoice. 'I am happy,' he answered 'that I have been so successful in baking these matzot.' The tzadik envious of his pupil’s happiness, asked if he would exchange his matzot for those that he himself had baked. The pupil was delighted to accede to this request. For the first time, the joy of Rav Shmelke was complete as he performed the mitzvah of the matzot at the Seder. The pupil rejoiced sevenfold at being privileged to eat matzot baked by the great tzadik himself, for these were surely ten times more kosher than his own.

Now why did the tzadik rejoice over his pupil’s matzot more than his own? 'All the time that I was baking my matzot' he said, 'my heart was troubled and I was beset with doubts for I could not be absolutely sure they were perfect But these matzot have been baked by a man who is upright and he testifies of their being baked properly; in such a case there is no place for doubt.'

From this episode we can derive three lessons.

1. That the Torah was not given to the angels in heaven, but every Israelite is capable of performing the mitzvot properly. If there had been anything amiss with the pupil’s matzot, God would have prevented them from coming into the possession of the tzadik.

2. The love of their fellow-Israelites and their confidence in them is more important to the tzadikim than all the effort and energy they exert in learning Torah and practicing the mitzvot.

3. The happiness derived from a mitzvah is so great that because of it a pupil was privileged to eat of the matzot over which the great tzadik had toiled and labored.