Fur Coats and Arrogance

Rav Chaim Meir, the Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz, was very close with his uncle, the Ateres Yeshua of Dzikov, and would often recount stories and teachings from his uncle.

One time, the Imrei Chaim noticed a very arrogant person whose self-satisfied smirk attested to his vanity. "You think too much of yourself and regard yourself too highly," the Imrei Chaim rebuked him. "If you were in the beis medrash of my uncle, the Ateres Yeshua, he would not even be able to look at you. He so hated ba'alei gaava (arrogant people) that he could not spare them a glance without shivering from repulsion. My uncle used to say, 'I am waiting and wishing that the winter would pass already, because during the winter all the ba'alei batim are bundled up in fancy coats with fur-lined and velvet collars turned up against the frost. But when they enter the shul and beis medrash, they leave them on so as to feel important. Their arrogance knows no bounds.'"