"Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?"

Reb Zusha of Anipoli was on his deathbed and his disciples found him crying. They said, "Zusha, why are you crying? Don't you believe you will go on to your afterlife?"

Zusha replied, "If I believed that when I was received on High, God would ask me: 'Zusha, why weren't you like Moses?'

Then I wouldn't cry. I would simply respond, 'Well, I didn't have Moses' leadership or his charisma. I wasn't him.'

And if God asked me, 'Zusha, why couldn't you write mystical poetry like Akiva?'

 Then I wouldn't cry. I would respond, 'Well my brain was different, I was never able to describe the world in such splendor as Akiva.'

I am crying because I know that God is not going to ask me why I was not Moses or Akiva. God is going to ask me,

'Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?"'

Kabbalist Rabbi Dr. Marc Gafni, (The Erotic and the Holy)