The Spirit Comes to the Bais Medrash
In the middle of arguing with the Rambam, the Raavad writes down something astonishing about his own bais medrash in Posquieres.
Whoever opens the Rambam's Mishneh Torah meets the Raavad in the margins, usually in disagreement. In Hilchos Lulov, in the eighth perek, he argues over a myrtle branch whose top has been cut off, and then he stops to say something nobody expected from a Rishon who argued so sharply with his colleagues.
He writes that ruach hakodesh has appeared in his bais medrash for some years now. On that basis he rules that such a branch is unfit, as the plain Mishnah says, and he adds that a place was left for him from Heaven. He said it without display, as a simple report.
The Chassidic tradition understood these words as more than sharp reasoning. The Chida records in Shem HaGedolim that Rav Chaim Vital took them to mean that Eliyohu HaNovi had revealed himself to the Raavad, and the Arizal's circle counted him as one of the links that carried the hidden Torah from one generation to the next. Rav Moshe ibn Chaviv, in Kapos Temarim, read the words as a figure of speech, and the Chida did not accept his view.
Centuries later the Lubavitcher Rebbe pointed out that the Rambam wrote, in his letter to Yemen, that prophecy would return to Israel in the year 4976 (1216). The Raavad lived not long before that date, and the Rebbe saw the ruach hakodesh in his bais medrash as the first rays of that coming light.
Source: Hasagos HaRaavad on Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Lulov 8:5 (also Hilchos Bais HaBechirah 6:14 and Hilchos Mitamei Mishkov UMoshov 7:7); Chida, Shem HaGedolim, Maareches Gedolim, Alef 11; Rav Chaim Vital, introduction to Shaar HaHakdamos; Toras Menachem 17, Shabbos Parshas Balak 5716.
The Raavad had every reason to rely on his own sharp mind, yet he spoke of what Heaven had left for him. Today, before you learn, open a sefer, or start something difficult, stop for ten seconds and ask Hashem to open your understanding. Afterward, when an idea comes clearly, thank Him for it instead of keeping the credit for yourself. A little humility makes room for wisdom you would never have found on your own.