The story is told of one of the ascetics who went to a certain city to teach the service of GD to its inhabitants. He found that their clothing and personal finery were all alike in color, their graves were near the doors of their homes, and he saw no women among them. When he asked them about this, they said to him, "Our apparel is all of one color so that the poor man be indistinguishable from the rich man so that the wealthy man not become proud and arrogant and the poor man not be disgraced in his own eyes; and that our condition upon the earth be as our condition beneath it. It is told of one of the kings that he would mingle with his servants and was indistinguishable among them because, in his dress and ornaments, he practiced humility. pg 421
Once, on a Motzoei Shabbos, the chasidim were sitting in the bais medrash of the Ruzhiner Rebbe zy”a for Melave Malka. Suddenly, the Rebbe opened the door of his room next to the bais medrash, stood at the entrance, and said, “The Baal Shem Tov was not a deity, and the zaida, the Magid, was not just an ordinary wagon driver. And once, when the holy Baal Shem Tov prayed, his talis fringe fell out of his gartel and dragged on the floor. The Magid approached, picked it up, and put it back in the gartel, but he was trembled with such tremendous fear that he fainted and his life was in danger. They were compelled to rouse the Baal Shem Tov from his deep dveikus in order to calm him.” He then added, “I told you that the Baal Shem Tov was not a deity and my zaida, the Magid, was no wagon driver. Still and all, when he touched the Besht’s garment, he fainted from fear. The entire world is Hashem’s garment. How much fear must we feel to touch this world!” May the memory of the...