Rav Yekusiel Yehuda of Sanz-Klausenberg told the following story one Sholosh Seudos [see Shefa Chaim on Parshas Naso tov-shin-mem-daled] (also found in the kuntres Tav Chaim as a prelude to certain editions of the Chida’s sefer Shem HaGedolim):
Although the Chida was counted among the younger of the Ohr HaChaim’s talmidim, still Rav Chaim ben Attar greatly admired him, drew him close and bestowed upon the Chida a special and unique berocha that from Heaven the Chida should be sanctified with the kedusha of Aharon HaKohen!
At first the Chida misconstrued his Rebbe’s meaning and thought he had been blessed with the ability to give berochos to Am Yisrael be’ahava just as Aharon and the Kohanim bless the Jewish people. However, decades later, the true meaning of this special berocha was revealed in the following amazing manner:
In his old age, the Chida ended up in Leghorn, Italy, which the Jews know as Livorno. He had refused the position of Rav again and again, although the various communities’ elders and leaders tried to have him take up the post. Instead, the Chida preferred to sit and learn Torah uninterrupted except for a four-year stint when he took up the post of Rav while he was in Egypt. Nonetheless, although he held no official title or position, all the Jews knew of his greatness and accorded him the honor and respect due to a sage and Talmid Chochom, one of the Gedolim of the generation.
One day, a community leader came before the Chida and complained to him that his wife had been seen alone in the company of another man. “If this is so,” said the Chida, “you must divorce her, give her a get and she loses any rights to collect her kesuba.”
The Dayonim heard his decision and were baffled; how could he decide such a matter without any testimony or evidence? But they dared not contradict his ruling. The Chida asked that the wife be summoned to the place in the Bais Medrash where he sat and studied, immersed in Torah. The Chida tried to persuade her gently and kindly to accept a get of divorce from her husband, but the woman was brazen and arrogant. She answered the Rav back with chutzpa and as she spat back her arguments to the Rav, the Chida remembered the berocha he had received from the Ohr HaChaim, his Rebbe, all those years ago.
Turning to the insulting woman, the Chida asked, “Please, I have just one request. Listen as I read aloud to you a portion from the Parsha in the Torah.”
The arrogant woman acquiesced to this one request and stood still as the Chida took out a Torah and began to recite the Parsha of Naso where the Torah describes the sota. As the Chida read the pesukim the woman began to leave in the middle – but she did not escape in time, for just as she reached the stairs, the Chida concluded reading the Parsha of the sota, and no sooner did he finish the last words than she stopped with her foot resting on the step, while her face contorted and her eyes bulged out of their sockets. With a shriek she collapsed and dropped dead. Hearing her outcry, many people rushed to the scene as she breathed her last, and witnessed this miraculous event.
