The Or HaChaim Hakadosh’s yahrtzeit is on the 15th of Tamuz, so we will discuss some stories of this holy tzaddik and some praises of his holy sefarim.
The Or HaChaim moved to Eretz Yisrael from Morocco, and he settled in Tiveria. Once, he was invited to a meal with Reb Chaim Abulafia zt'l. The Or HaChaim HaKadosh declined to partake, saying, "I feel that there's tumah in this house." Soon afterwards, it was discovered that the maid had died. (People first thought she had fallen asleep in the kitchen.) People began murmuring that the Or HaChaim was greater than Reb Chaim Abulafia because he sensed the tumah while Reb Chaim Abulafia apparently didn’t. After this story, to protect the honor of Reb Chaim Abulafia, the Or HaChaim left Tiveria and settled in Yerushalayim. He didn't want people to say that he was greater than Reb Chaim Abulafia.
There are different versions of the following story, and we will tell it as Reb Mottel Slonimer zt’l used to say it: The Or HaChaim HaKadosh arrived at a city and needed a place to stay for Shabbos, but he didn’t know in which home the kashrus was reliable. When he heard someone say l'kavod Shabbos kodesh as he was preparing for Shabbos, the Or HaChaim felt confident he could eat in that home.
That city had a very special Rav, and at each of the three Shabbos meals, the Rav would repeat divrei Torah he had heard from heaven. On Friday night after the seudah, the Or HaChaim HaKadosh's host brought the Or HaChaim to the Rav’s home. At one point in the middle of the Rav’s speech, the Or HaChaim corrected him. The Rav said, "I swear you are Reb Chaim ben Atar (the Or HaChaim HaKadosh) because I heard this dvar Torah in heaven in the name of Reb Chaim ben Atar, and you said it exactly as I heard it." After the morning meal and again at shalosh seudos, the Or HaChaim came with his host to the Rav’s home to listen to his holy drashos.
During shalosh seudos, the Satan appeared to the Rav and said, "Finish shalosh seudos quickly. It's late." "What is the hurry?" the Rav asked the Satan. The Satan explained that every Shabbos, the neshamos in Gehinom have permission to leave Gehinom and go to Gan Eden. "When Shabbos is over, I must return the neshamos to Gehinom. But I have to wait until the Or HaChaim HaKadosh recites havdalah, as that marks the end of Shabbos. After the Or HaChaim's havdalah, I return the neshamos to Gehinom. But you are conducting a long shalosh seudos with your divrei Torah, preventing the Or HaChaim from saying havdalah. So, please finish shalosh seudos quickly, and I will send the souls back to Gehinom."
When the Rav heard the Satan's explanation, he decided to conduct shalosh seudos even longer to help the neshamos stay in Gan Eden a little longer. The Satan kept returning to the Rav, urging him to finish shalosh seudos, but the Rav ignored him. Once, the Rav got angry with the Satan and said, "What's the big rush?! Take it easy!" Immediately after saying this, the Rav asked for mayim achronim. They benched and finished the meal. The Rav explained that after he became angry, his anger lit the fire of Gehinom. This is because anger is Gehinom, as it states, as Chazal (Nedarim 21) say, "Whoever becomes angry, all forms of Gehinom rule over him." After becoming angry, the rav knew that it wouldn’t help to prolong shalosh seudos. So, they might as well bench, daven Maariv, and say havdalah.
When Reb Mottel Slonimer told this story, he stressed the severity of anger as it turns on the fire of Gehinom.
In addition to being a wonderful, holy sefer, the sefer Or HaChaim contains many segulos. One segulah is for bearing children. Rebbe Pinchas of Koritz zt'l said that since the Or HaChaim didn’t have children, he placed his entire power of bearing children into the sefer Or HaChaim. Therefore, studying this sefer is mesugal for having children.
The son of Rebbe Pinchas of Koritz became ill, and his father accepted on himself to study a daf of Or HaChaim (as printed in the Chumash of Shklov) each day (Imrei Pinchas, Shaar HaTorah, 133).
Reb Shpraver of Brashov (author of דעניא אפרקסתא) zt'l didn’t have any children, and his Rebbe, the Imrei Yosef of Spinka zt'l, advised him to learn a certain vort from the Or HaChaim, as a segulah to have children. He studied that piece every day until he had a child. Towards the end of his life, Reb Shpraver expressed regret that he forgot which piece of the Or HaChaim is mesugal for bearing children. The Lev Simchah of Gur zt'l heard this story and said, "The truth is, every piece of Or HaChaim is mesugal for children. The Or HaChaim didn’t have children, so he placed his power of bearing children into his sefer."
It was medically impossible for Reb Hillel Shlesinger zt’l to bear children. A doctor said, "When hair grows on my palm, you will have children." But Reb Hillel refused to lose hope. He went to the kever of the Or HaChaim and made a kabbalah that he would study Or HaChayim HaKadosh each week as a segulah to have children. He was blessed with three daughters. One married Reb Moshe Halberstam zt’l, another married Reb Sender Freund zt’l, and the third married Reb Nochum Shapiro zt’l—three great scholars of Yerushalayim.
When one of the daughters was nine, she went to the doctor complaining of a cold. The doctor diagnosed her with diphtheria and immediately rushed her into the operating room to save her life. Reb Hillel Shlesinger made a neder that if his daughter recovered, he would bring her to the Or HaChaim's beis medresh in the Old City of Yerushalayim so that she could light a candle there. (In Yerushalayim of those years, this was a renowned segulah for yeshuos.) He also promised that if she recovered, he would light a candle liluy nishmas the Or HaChaim every week before Shabbos. His daughter recovered, and obviously, he kept his promises. (This daughter later married Reb Moshe Halberstam zt'l.)
About a hundred years ago, there was a rabbinic convention in Vilna for the Vaad HaYeshivos in the home of the Greineman family. Many gedolim were present, including the Chofetz Chaim, Reb Chaim Ozer, and the Chazon Ish zt'l. After the meeting, before leaving, the Chofetz Chaim entered the kitchen, and he saw the host's daughter, S. Greineman, sitting near the window, checking rice for bugs. "How many times do you check the rice?" the Chofetz Chaim asked her. She replied that she checks the rice twelve times. The Chofetz Chaim expressed his surprise that she checks the rice so many times. She explained that her relative, the Chazon Ish, would be eating with them, and she wanted to be certain that the food would be at the highest standard of kashrus in honor of the Chazon Ish.
