And Jacob lived... (47:28)

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi wished to bless Rabbi Yekutiel Lefler with riches, but the chassid declined, explaining that the preoccupations of wealth would infringe upon his study of Torah and his service of the Almighty.

So the Rebbe offered to bless him with long life. Said the Rabbi Yekutiel: "But not with a peasant's years, not with the years of those 'who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear'; not with a life in which one sees not G‑dliness and one hears not G‑dliness."

Asks the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory: is it not presumptuous for one who is offered a gift to say: "Okay, I accept, but only on the condition that you throw a few extras"? But to Rabbi Yekutiel, 'to see G‑dliness and hear G‑dliness' is not a matter of raised consciousness or an enhancement of the 'spiritual' quality of his life, but the very definition of life itself.