By Dovid Zaklikowski for COLlive and Hasidic Archives
The crowd gathered around the Seder table of the sixth Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, who stared in shock.
One of their fellow guests had just dipped his matzah in the beet juice on his plate, violating the sacred Chabad custom to avoid wetting matzah lest some small remaining flour within becoming leaven.
Seeing that the Hasidim were upset, the Rebbe asked his aide what the problem was. The aide gave the Rebbe a quick, whispered account. Should something be said? he asked the Rebbe. For the moment, at least, the offending guest remained oblivious.
The Rebbe responded with an emphatic no: “Better for the matzah to be red like a beet than the man’s face!”
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Similar stories are also said about numerous Gedolei Yisroel (e.g. too much salt in soup & added more to avoid embarrassing the orphan cook; spilled wine on table cloth & shook table to spill own wine etc. etc.)