The first year that I was at the Rebbe for Shavuos was 5727/1967, when I was a bochur in the first year of Yeshiva in Montreal. Up to that point, I was living at home in Los Angeles so I never had the chance to be with the Rebbe for Shavuos before this year.
That was the Shavuos right after the 6 Day War, it had finished just a few days earlier. The kevios was the same that year as it is this year, Shavuos was Wednesday - Thursday.
On Shabbos Parshas Beha’alotcha, the Shabbos after Shavuos, When the Rebbe started the farbrengen they sang “The Gimmel Tenuos” The Three Stanzas. One part if from the Ba’al Shem Tov, one part is from the Maggid and one part is from the Alter Rebbe.
The Rebbe strongly said, why are people talking or looking around, when this Niggun is sung. Because it’s known when you say a Torah from a Tzaddik it’s as if the Tzaddik is there with you, and when you sing a Niggun it’s even greater.
The Rebbe started the farbrengen with that vort and then the Rebbe explained a story about the Baal Shem Tov told by the Rebbe Rayatz in Otwock on the second day of Shavuos 5796 /1936.
The Rebbe Rayatz introduced the story with a gevaldege vort that the Maggid said after the passing of the Baal Shem Tov. It’s known that during the week the Ba’al Shem Tov was 2/3’s in the physical world and 1/3 in the spiritual world. On Shabbos he was 2/3’s in the spiritual world and 1/3 in the physical world. We know how much the Ba’al Shem Tov accomplished in his lifetime for Ahavas Yisroel. Nevertheless even though the Ba’al Shem Tov lived on such a level the Maggid said that if the he had known then, what he knew now, after his passing, what he was accomplishing by being mekarev simple Jews, he would have done it in a completely different way.
Once the Baal Shem Tov was sitting with his talmidim eating a seudah on Rosh Chodesh. His mood was extremely serious and the Talmidim exerted themselves, as they had in the past, to uplift his demeanor but their efforts were fruitless - whatever they tried did not work. The talmidim were distressed. Suddenly, a simple Jew, R. Dovid entered the room . Upon seeing R. Dovid the Baal Shem Tov's spirits lifted and he became happy. The Baal Shem Tov brought R. Dovid close and gave him a place at the table and even served R . Dovid a piece of his own challah . The Baal Shem Tov was completely b'simcha.
The Talmidim, including the Maggid, had made every effort to uplift the Baal Shem Tov and here R. Dovid was successful without any evident effort! What greatness was there in R. Dovid? The Baal Shem Tov saw that the talmidim were puzzled. He sent R. Dovid on an errand, and told the Talmidim that R. Dovid had to sweat for each penny he earned. It took him an entire year to collect, penny by penny, enough money with which to buy a good, mehudardike esrog in the big city.
R. Dovid returned from town with the esrog in great joy. His wife, worn down by money worries, was extremely bitter that R. Dovid had spent his savings on an esrog when it could have gone for necessities. (Not only the money, but her husband had expended a great deal of effort to travel to and from the big city on bad roads and bridges dangerous from floods.) She became very aggravated, so much that she took the esrog and bit off the pitom!
Instead of becoming angry at his wife, R. Dovid held his peace and decided that his wife was right, he was not on a high spiritual level to deserve such an esrog: What did he do? He pawned something from his house and with the money he purchased a share in the community esrog which would be given to each of the subscribers as a "present on condition it be returned."
The Baal Shem Tov concluded that since the test of Avrohom Avinu at the Akeida, there has not been such a test from Heaven.
R. Dovid was put through such a severe test yet he controlled himself and did not become angry.
The Baal Shem Tov explained to his talmidim this is the flawless character of R. Dovid. The Rebbe added that we see that R. Dovid was so poor he didn't have a few extra pennies to buy into the community esrog.
The test here is understood - the hardships he lived with for an entire year to get this esrog did not make him feel "entitled." Even after his wife bit off the pitom not only did he keep his temper, he went on to do the mitzvah with the greatest hiddur. Instead of leaving his household object as a deposit with the communal leaders, he used it to borrow money at interest from a villager so that his share in the esrog would be paid for in cash, to be as free and clear as possible.
The Rebbe went on to explain why the Rebbe Rayatz chose this story of the Baal Shem Tov to tell during Shavuos.
Reprinted form the “Chabad Chodesh” - Sivan 5771