Gaon of Vilna once used to travel from city to city, going into Galut, exile. One day he got to a city, checked into an inn, and spent two days there. Of course, wherever he went, he was incognito; nobody really knew who he was. After two days, as he was about to leave the place where he was staying, the host went over to him and said, “You know, you look like a real, real Talmid Chacham (Torah scholar). How could you leave my house without paying for the two days you spent here?” “Oh,” said the Gaon of Vilna, “you want me to pay? Okay, how much do I owe you?” “No, no, no,” said the man. “I don't want money. I want you to give me Musar (ethical guidance). Tell me what I did wrong.” The Gaon looked at him and said, “I really didn't see anything wrong that you did in the last two days.” “Well, tell me something,” said the host. The Gaon looked at him and said, “Well, I don't really have any Musar to give you, but I have a question to ask you. Every morning, you get up, make Netilat Yadayim (ritual handwashing), say Birkot HaShachar and Modeh Ani, and right after that, you go to your wife and give her a cup of tea every single morning. What is that strange custom? Why do you do that?”
“Well, I'll tell you the story,” he said to the Gaon. “You know, I grew up in a different town, and I was a very special boy. I was the best student in my class. My name was very popular among the townspeople. They knew I was a very special student. As I grew older, all the Shadchanim (matchmakers) were finding me all kinds of girls to marry, especially the rich folk. They wanted me as a Chatan (groom). So one day, one of the very rich men in the town came over to my father and said, ‘Listen, I want your son for my daughter, and I'm willing to pay big money.’ Well, my father was very excited. We were a very poor family, and sure enough, they got engaged and made the tena'im, the conditions. My future father-in-law found out that we were very poor and that all I ate was bread and garlic, and he didn't like that. So he went over to my father and told him, ‘You know, from here on in, I've got a special cook who's going to cook the best food in town for your family, and my future son-in-law is going to eat like a king. And so will you, the whole family.’”
“So, for a long time, we were engaged. As the wedding date got closer, my future rich father-in-law started to lose money. Little by little, he lost his whole business. He had to come to my father and confess that he was no longer able to give us food. He was no longer able to support me, and the tena'im, the conditions that he had made, could no longer be met. Well, when my father heard that, he said, ‘No way, Jose, this shidduch (match) is not happening.’ And he canceled the shidduch. And then, of course, I went on to become the most popular person in town, known to be the best learner. Another rich man came to my father to give me a shidduch for his daughter, and I ended up marrying another girl. We were married for about three months, and things were going great. I was married to my wife, and I had a rich father-in-law. But then, one day, I got ill and got tzara'at, leprosy, all over my body. Well, my father-in-law went and got the best doctors possible, and they tried to treat me. Whatever they did, they couldn't cure me. This kept going on. I was ill. I was by myself in a room because the leprosy was contagious. One day, my father-in-law came to visit me, and he didn't have a happy face. He looked at me and said, ‘Listen, I tried to cure you with the best doctors possible, but I wasn't successful.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Well, what do you want to do? You want to leave my daughter like a widow? You're sick? Give my daughter a get (divorce document).’ I had no choice, and I had to give my wife a get. And then I was divorced. And I had nothing. No money. No place to live. No health. All I had was tzara'at. That's all I had. Leprosy.”
“So what am I going to do? I was put in a place all by myself in the corner of the town in Hachnasat Orchim (hospitality) because I had a contagious disease. Once in a while, the Talmidei Chachamim (Torah scholars) in the town would come and hear a shiur (lesson) from me in Gemara according to the Maharsha. One day, many people came to listen to me, among them people who were collecting money for their families. They came over to me and told me, ‘You know, you give unbelievable shiurim. We want to take you from town to town with us. You give a shiur, and we will collect more money than ever. We'll give you half the money, and we'll keep half the money because you're a good shiur giver.’ Well, I didn't want to do it. What did I have to do with money? I was a Talmid Chacham. All I wanted to do was learn Torah. But they kept pressuring me and said, ‘It's a big mitzvah (commandment). You'll be helping so many families,’ and I had no choice. I agreed on the condition that when I wanted to come back home, they could bring me back home, and they agreed.”
“So I started traveling from town to town with these guys, and they were doing very well. They were making more money than ever, and they would give me half the money. One day I got to a town, and a Shadchan heard me speak and came over to me and told me, ‘I have a shidduch for you.’ I told him, ‘What do you mean, shidduch? I'm sick; I have leprosy.’ He said, ‘Don't worry. The girl I wanted to arrange for you to marry is also sick; she also has leprosy.’ I said, ‘Okay, if that's the case, let's go.’ And sure enough, I met the girl, and the girl met me. We agreed to get married. And sure enough, we got married. Then we went into the Yichud (seclusion) room.”
“When we went into the Yichud room, my bride turned to me and started crying like a baby. I turned to her and said, ‘Why are you crying?’ She said to me, ‘Because once upon a time I was engaged to get married to a big Talmid Chacham, and my father lost his money, and my shidduch was broken. Now I ended up with leprosy, and I'm ending up marrying somebody with leprosy instead of marrying a Talmid Chacham when my father was rich.’ I started to ask her questions: What was her father's name, what was her name, and what town she came from. And sure enough, I found out that this was the girl I was engaged to marry, and I broke up with her. I told her, ‘I'm the man that you were supposed to marry.’ When she heard that, she was so happy that she ended up marrying her original shidduch. And lo and behold, three months later, both of us got cured, and we both didn't have leprosy because HaKadosh Baruch Hu knew that this was the shidduch for me and for her. So that's why, my dear Gaon of Vilna, I give tea to my wife every morning because I appreciate the fact that she is my real wife.”