A Slight Touch to Awaken Him

Rav Shneur Zalman of Liadi shared a story about the deveikus of the Ohr HaChaim with Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, whose child was married to his own.

A harsh decree had been issued against Klal Yisroel by the nations. The community leaders resolved to daven and to bribe officials in the hope of cancelling it, and all agreed that the Ohr HaChaim must be asked to daven for them.

They rushed to his beis medrash and found him absorbed in holy thought, so removed from the world that they dared not come near. They waited for him to rise, but hour after hour passed and nothing changed. He was in such deep deveikus that he neither answered them nor seemed to know they were there.

They knew that the lightest touch, even a brush against his clothing, would bring him back at once, and that he would gladly help in such a time. But he was exacting about his state of purity and became upset when anyone disturbed it. So they found a pure young boy, untouched by sin or wrong thoughts, brought him to the mikveh, and gave him brand-new clothes to wear. Only then did they let him touch the Ohr HaChaim's cloak, lightly and for a moment. At the touch of the child's fingers, the tzaddik awoke from his deveikus and returned to himself.

Rav Shneur Zalman concluded, “See how great the deveikus of the Ohr HaChaim was, and his love and awe of Hashem were just as lofty.”