Snuff Box

The Alter Rebbe once received, as a gift from a baal teshuva, a silver snuff box. Upon receiving it, the Alter Rebbe remarked: “There is one limb in the person (the nose) that is not by its nature such a glutton for worldly pleasures, and they want to create means for it to indulge as well?!” And the Alter Rebbe broke off the top to use as a mirror for his teffilin.

When the Tzemach Tzedek heard the story, he remarked: “The zeide (the Alter Rebbe) was involved in building not in breaking, and it is inconceivable that he broke the snuff box. Surely what actually took place was that the two parts were held together by a screw, and the Alter Rebbe removed the screw and detached them”