whenever he heard
steps on the stair, he used to turn away, and stand with his face to the
wall, till whoever it was had gone out again and shut the door.

In a word, he became a Porush, for he lived separate from the world.

At first people thought he wouldn't persevere long, because he was a
lively youth by nature; but as week after week went by, and the Porush
sat and studied, and the tearful voice in which he intoned the Gemoreh
was heard in the street half through the night, or else he was seen at
the attic window, his pale face raised towards the sky, then they began
to believe in him, and they hoped he might in time become a mighty man
in Israel, and perhaps even a wonderworker. They said so to the Rebbe,
Chayyim Vital, but he listened, shook his head, and replied, "God grant
it may last."

Meantime a little "wonder" really happened. The beadle's little
daughter, who used sometimes to carry up the Porush's food for her
father, took it into her head that she must have one look at the Porush.
What does she? Takes off her shoes and stockings, and carries the food
to him barefoot, so noiselessly that she heard her own heart beat. But
the beating of her heart frightened her so much that she fell down half
the stairs, and was laid up for more than a month in consequence. In her
fever she told the whole story, and people began to believe in the
Porush more firmly than ever and to wait with increasing impatience till
he should become famous.

They described the occurrence to Reb Chayyim Vital, and again he shook
his head, and even sighed, and answered, "God grant he may be
victorious!" And when they pressed him for an explanation of these
words, Reb Chayyim answered, that as the Porush had left the world, not
so much for the sake of Heaven as on account of his grief for his wife,
it was to be feared that he would be sorely beset and tempted by the
"Other Side," and God grant he might not stumble and fall.

* * * * *

And Reb Chayyim Vital never spoke without good reason!

One day the Porush was sitting deep in a book, when he heard something
tapping at the door, and fear came over him. But as the tapping went on,
he rose, forgetting to close his book, went and opened the door--and in
walks a turkey. He lets it in, for it occurs to him that it would be
nice to have a living thing in the room. The turkey walks past him, and
goes and settles down quietly in a corner. And the Porush won