R. Meir Paharer was a chossid of the Mitteler Rebbe and the Tzemach Tzedek. He demanded the highest standards of authenticity in Chassidus and Avodas Hashem, and was known for his sharp tongue.
R. Meir would daven quietly with deep concentration. Before krias shema, he would tie a handkerchief around his forehead to help him concentrate better. The Tzemach Tzedek was reported to have said about R. Meir, "Are there many 'Meirs'?"
His style was sharp and demanding. During one farbrengen, as R. Meir was speaking about the greatness of the neshama, as he often did. Suddenly, he stopped and turned to his son Nachman and asked, “Nachman, does Hirshel Volf have a goat?” R. Nachman answered that he doesn’t know. “You chunk of meat!” R. Meir responded sharply. “Why don’t you know if he has a goat? Why are you not concerned about his financial state?!”
R. Volf Levitin, the Mashgiach of the yeshiva in Lubavitch, was married to the daughter of R. Gershon Ber Paharer, and he remembered R. Meir well.
R. Gershon Ber was sent to Pahar by R. Hillel Paritcher to serve as a mashpia while he was still a young man. Once, when R. Gershon Ber repeated a maamar, R. Meir commented that he says it as though he's playing notes from a musical box. He meant that R. Gershon Ber had not fully internalized the Chassidus he was repeating.
When R. Shmuel Levitin, the son of R. Volf and grandson of R. Gershon Ber, shared this story at the Frierdiker Rebbe’s table, the Frierdiker Rebbe laughed hard, since he held R. Gershon Ber in high regard.
(ניצוצי אור – וויינגארטען ע' 256)
On another occasion, soon after the chossid R. Bereh Volf Kozevnikov of Yaketrinaslav got married, Reb Meir rebuked him and said, "Have you already stopped learning?" Soon afterwards, R. Bereh Volf injured his leg, and he attributed it to R. Meir's kpeida (displeasure).
(ניצוצי אור – וויינגארטען)
