When the Maggid of Mezritch was five years old, fire struck his parents' home and consumed it. His mother was distraught. The Maggid said to his mother, "Why are you so sad that the house was destroyed by fire, when all of us are well, thank G-d, and the house can be rebuilt?"

His mother responded, "I'm not, Heaven forbid, distressed about the house. I am saddened rather by the loss of the book of our lineage that was consumed in the fire, which traces itself back to Rabbi Yochanan HaSandler, the renowned Talmudic Sage."

"If so," answered the child, "the lineage will begin anew, with me."

Otzar Sippurei Chabad, vol. 14, p. 236