Rabbi of Berlin, to continue my comments on your letter:
Whether Rabbi Kanievski Shli”ta related the story or just commented on the story is really immaterial. If he commented on it, desn’t it imply that he believed it? (again, IF he in fact commented on it,as I have said before, it is an unfortunate fact that people misquote Gedolim and sometimes make up stories about them) But if we asssume he did comment on it, it follows that he believed the story from a reliable source, in which case I believe it too, since I don’t consider myself more saavy than him. But if you don’t hold Rav Kanievski to that esteem, that is your perogative.
The next part in which you explain the nes nistar versus galui is exactly what I wrote in my previous text, so we are on the same page about that. So, in effect, you believe this “fairy tale” COULD have happened because it is after all possible, though very improbable. I couldn’t agree more. The only reason why I tend to give just a bit more credence to it is because it was said over in the name of Rav Kanievski, and it can be verified. In fact in a previous post I challenged Nameless, on behalf of all of us here in the coffee room, to research the story. Now that she sent us on this wild ride, she owes it to us to make up for it by backing up her story with the facts.
You asked me if I believe in all the chassidishe mayselach: I have two answers:
1. Chassidim themselves will tell you that many of their stories are made up/exagerated, etc, or they are not clear who it actually happened to. Since storytelling was a major focus by the early chassidim, its hard to know for sure what is true and what isn’t. So, I enjoy the stories and try to learn from them what I could, but I usually take them with a grain of salt, especially if they sound too fanciful. (I know someone who feels that telling children a chassidish meysah is worse than telling them snow white and the seven dwarfs, because you are teaching them sheker cloaked in emes, whereas with snow white, the children can clearly see it is a fairy tale. But that is just one persons view)
2. As far as I understand, the point of a story is for the lesson it teaches. That’s why the source, details, who it happened to,etc. are really secondary to the point. (Of course, if you have a penchant for only telling over 100% true stories you might want to stay away from stories that are not verifiable.) So if I heard a beautiful story but cannot remember or verify the details, I may repeat it. Though personally, I do like to stick to stories I know to be true.
As far as my emuna stopping at R’ Kanievski, I have often thought of an interesting phenomenon which is that on average, chassidish stories usually involve a “nes”, which you need to believe. Non- chassidic stories about Litvish-style gedolim usually involve a point of midos or emuna that we could learn from. I prefer the latter.
To end, there is a famous story with one of the Brisker Gedolim, which I won’t repeat bec dont know all the details, but the basic point was that he told his talmidim not to be impressed with “mofsim”. Mofsim anyone can do, and he proceeded to do one right then and there. He told them, that is not what should impress you. Serving Hashem, learning Torah is the ikar.
Have a great night.