Rav Mordechai of Slonim once told how the holy Ba’al Shem Tov confronted his talmid, Rav Nachum Czernobyler and asked him why he had split the very heavens that day during Mincha. Defending his actions, the Meor Einayim recounted how he had traveled by wagon in the freezing cold weather. Just as they neared the neighboring village, the old gentile wagon driver passed out in the snow and died. When the wagon got to the village, the goyim attacked Rav Nachum, screaming that he had murdered the wagon driver and how they would retaliate by lynching him.
“I begged them to let me have my last rites, and as I davened Mincha to Hashem and beseeched the heavens, the wagon driver’s body revived – he got up and, before the frightened and astonished villagers, declared how he had died of frostbite and hypothermia and not by my hand. After he told them this, he fell back down again dead, and I was saved and reprieved. Perhaps that is what you heard from the Heavens?” (Mizekeinim Esbonon II - page 57:3)
Rav Tal Zwecker heard this story from Rav Moshe Weinberger Mara DeAsra of Aish Kodesh, Woodmere, NY, who heard it from the ba'al ha'maase himself (the protaganist of the story). There was once a talmid chacham who was not a chassid. Unfortunately as he grew older his eyesight deteriorated and he was slowly becoming blind, rachmana litzlan. His family urged him to visit Rav Yoel of Satmar Zatzal, well known for his blessings and their wondrous ability to miraculously aid and heal others. However he refused stating that he was no chassid and would not go to a chassidishe rebbe for a b’racha. Eventually as his eyesight grew worse and he could no longer study or learn Torah his family convinced him to visit Rav Yoel'ish not because of his fame or stature as a wonderworking rebbe but as his fame as a talmid chacham, for the Gemara tells us to request the blessings and prayers of a talmid chacham for the sick. Rav Yoel, told him that he should study the chassidishe sefer Meor Eynaim (which means the light of the eyes) and that that would aid his failing eyesight, Tzaddik gozer, a righteous tzaddik decrees and Hashem fulfills. The more and more he studied the more he regained his eyesight until Baruch Hashem he was able to see normally once again!
