A pivotal late-night conversation with Abraham Joshua Heschel revealed how a single act of religious transgression profoundly shaped his theology of Jewish law. Through personal narrative documentation, Dresner recounts their discussion following the publication of Heschel's first volume of *Torah min ha-shamayim*, wherein Heschel shared a transformative experience from his youth in Vienna. The account centers on Heschel's mentor, Itchi Meir Levin, a Kotzker Hasid who deliberately violated Sabbath prohibitions by concealing money within a religious text—an act intended to enable Heschel's Polish language studies. According to Kotzker theology, this transgression served a greater mitzvah by preventing despair, considered among the gravest sins in Hasidic thought. The qualitative analysis demonstrates how this experience led Heschel to understand halakhah as contextually flexible rather than rigidly fixed, illuminating the tension between legal observance and spiritual necessity. This formative incident provides crucial insight into Heschel's declaration that "Hasidism saved me for Judaism" and the theological foundations underlying his scholarly work on revelation and religious practice.