The Bas Ayin's Wondrous Hearing
The following story passed down to us from the Av Bais Din of Ladani, who heard it from Rav Avrohom Gottesman, who received this tradition from the famed mechaber of the Arugas Habosem:
“They all sat spellbound, listening to their Rebbe, the Tzaddik from Czernobyl, mechaber of the Meor Einayim, who, having concluded his discourse of Divrei Torah, had begun to speak of other more worldly matters. All sat still, all except one Chassid.
Slowly but surely, inch by inch, he crept forward. Another bit, and another bit, he slowly made his way down the table from the far side where he too had been sitting absorbing his Rebbe’s Divrei Torah. Slowly he inched along closer and closer, straining to hear his Rebbe’s words.
This was none other than Rav Avrohom Dov of Avritsh, the mechaber of the Bas Ayin. While most of the Chassidim sat enraptured and noticed nothing at all, there was one upstart who was annoyed by Rav Avrohom Dov’s slow advance toward the head of the table. He vocally objected most loudly to what he decided was a dishonorable move.
“So now you come, eh? Now you make your way to the head of the table, eh? The whole time the Rebbe said Torah, you sat content at the far end, but now that the discourse is over and the Rebbe’s discussions turn to more mundane matters, now you make your way over here, pushing and elbowing us all out of your way so you can sit yourself at the head of the table?!”
This sarcastic remark did not escape the Czernobyler Rebbe’s notice. The Meor Einayim turned, upset, not toward the Bas Ayin but instead toward this upstart and rebuked him, defending his talmid, the Bas Ayin’s behavior. “My talmid’s ears are pure. He has corrected them so that they are well attuned to hear the Torah that they need to hear and less so the mundane matters that they do not need to hear. When I recite Divrei Torah, he can even sit contentedly at the far end of the table and still listen and hear my words and absorb them from a distance. However, when it comes to sichas chullin and more mundane matters, even though there is what to learn from them too, he needs to exert more effort and sit close in order to hear better.”
