Rav Saadiah Gaon tells how if we only realized the extent of God's greatness, we would surely try to serve him in the greatest way possible.
More than 1,000 years ago, there lived a great teacher named Rav Saadiah Gaon (882–942).
At one point in his life, to escape all the honor and attention bestowed upon him, Saadia Gaon disguised himself in simple clothes and wandered from town to town. One night he slept in a small inn run by an old Jew. The innkeeper was a very kind and simple man who spoke briefly with Rabbi Saadia before going to sleep.
The next day, two of Saadia Gaon’s students came to the inn, searching for their teacher.
‘Did you see Rabbi Saadiah Gaon?’ they asked him. ‘We heard that he was here.’ At first the inn keeper thought they were mistaken, but when the young men described their Rebbe’s disguise the innkeeper realised that the Rav had indeed been there.
The inn keeper was shocked and upset, he approached Rav Saadiah, ‘Please forgive me, Rav Saadiah. Please forgive me. I didn’t know that it was you! If I had known, I would have honored you as befitting your greatness.’
Rav Saadiah looked surprised: ‘But my dear friend, you treated me very well, you were very kind and hospitable. Why are you so sorry? You have nothing to apologize for.’
“‘No, no, Rabbi,’ he replied. ‘If I would have known who you are, I would have served you completely differently!’
Suddenly, Rav Saadiah realized that this man was teaching a very important lesson in the service of God. He said: “Since then, every evening when I say the prayer before sleeping, I go over in my mind how I served God that day. Then I think of that old innkeeper, and say to myself: ‘If I had known about God in the beginning of the day what I know now, I would have served Him completely differently!’"
Submitted by Debbie Stone