"Buber tells of Rabbi Schneur Salman, the rav (Rabbi) of Northern White Russia, who died in 1813. When the rav was jailed in Petersburg, the chief of the gendarmes entered his cell. In an attempt to expose an alleged contradiction in Jewish doctrine, he asked: 

“How are we to understand that God, the all-knowing, said to Adam ‘Where art thou?’” 

“Do you believe,” answered the rav, “that the Scriptures are eternal and that every era, every generation and every man is included in them?” 

“I believe this,” said the other. 

“Well then,” said the zaddik (a leader of the Hasidic community), “in every era, God calls to every man: ‘Where are you in your world? So many years and days of those allotted to you have passed, and how far have you gotten in your world?’ God says something like this: ‘You have lived forty-six years. How far along are you?’” 

When the chief of the gendarmes heard his age mentioned, he pulled himself together, laid his hand on the Rav’s shoulder, and cried: ‘Bravo!’ But his heart trembled.” 

 

(M. Buber, The Way of Man: According to the Teachings of Hasidism.)