Rav Yekusiel Yehuda Greenwald of Budapest once related:
Rav Shmuel, the son of Rav Yom Tov Lipman Heller, lay unconscious, dying in his sickbed. Seeing his son’s worsening condition, Rav Heller approached the trunk were he kept his writings and manuscripts and removed a copy of the then unpublished manuscript of his monumental commentary on the Mishna, the Tosafos Yom Tov. Clutching his precious sefer, he declared heavenward:
“Ribono Shel Olam – Master of the World! Perhaps I had some pride or took some physical pleasure in the composition of my sefer, and if so, I am ready and willing right now to cast the pages into the flames and burn it!” He prepared and stoked the fire in the fireplace until suddenly, as he was about to relegate the handwritten manuscript to the flames, his son Shmuel cried out excitedly: “Tatty Tatty! Please don’t do it!”
The Tosafos Yom Tov was overjoyed and he ran to his son’s side and approached the sickbed. Shmuel told his father: “I was in the World of Truth, on High and I saw the Heavenly tribunal, deliberating my fate: would I live or die? Suddenly I saw Rav Yehuda HaNasi, the author of the Mishna, approach and advocate on my behalf. “Leave him be, allow him to live and descend back to earth, for his father authored the commentary Tosafos Yom Tov sincerely for the sake of Heaven, lishma, and many times he succeeded in arriving at the truth and getting things right. See how he now wishes to destroy and burn his manuscript!” No sooner did he say this when my fever broke and I awoke and I felt better now.” They celebrated his recovery with a festive meal, inviting all the rabbis of the town to share and rejoice.
(Yechabed Av, Shem Ha’gedolim Ha’chadash pg 30b) (See also Responsa Shu”t Tirosh Yitzhar [215] where he cites the sefer Chefetz Hashem of Rav Chaim Ben Attar, the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh, who writes that he has a sign that proves that he studied Torah lishma because many times he arrived at the truth by reaching the same conclusions as the Ramban, the Ran and the Tosafos Yom Tov).
