First, watch and listen to this inspirational havdallah – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y9jPvnV5B8

…and here is tonight’s story:

So great was R’ Yosef Yozel’s fear of Heaven, that the worry over a possible omission remained engraved in his memory for thirteen years.

With his disciple R’ Yoel Barantshik of Riga, he traveled all night to Bialystok on his way to found a yeshiva there.  When they arrived at last in Bialystok, they said Shema and went to sleep.  Upon awakening, R’ Yosef Yozel expressed his fear that they had missed the time for reciting the morning Shema.   R’ Yoel assured him that when they had recited Shema upon retiring, it was already morning, and therefore they had fulfilled their obligation to recite Shema in the morning.

This incident, however, remained on R’ Yosef Yozel’s mind for a very long time.  Seven years later, when rebbe and talmid spent the summer together, R’ Yosef Yozel asked R’ Yoel again whether they had missed the time of Shema.  And six years after that, R’ Yosef Yozel again asked, “Do you think dawn had already broken?” ~ Sparks of Mussar