The Blessing of Aharon HaKohen

Rav Yekusiel Yehuda of Sanz-Klausenberg told this account one Shalosh Seudos. Although the Chida was among the younger talmidim of the Ohr HaChaim, his rebbi admired him greatly and drew him close. The Ohr HaChaim gave him a special berachah, that he should be sanctified from Heaven with the kedushah of Aharon HaKohen. At first the Chida understood this to mean that he would be able to bless Klal Yisroel with love, as the Kohanim do. The real meaning, it is told, was revealed only decades later.

In his old age, in Livorno, the Chida refused again and again to accept a rabbonus. He preferred to learn without interruption, and he held no official title, yet everyone recognized his greatness. One day a community leader came to him with a complaint that his wife had been seen alone with another man. The Chida ruled that the man must divorce her, and that she would lose her kesubah. The dayanim were stunned that he would rule without testimony, but they did not dare to object.

The Chida had the woman brought to the place in the beis medrash where he sat learning. He tried gently to persuade her to accept a get, but she answered him with insolence. As she did, he remembered the berachah of his rebbi. He asked her for one favor, that she listen while he read a passage of the Torah, and she agreed.

He took out a Sefer Torah and began to read Parshas Naso, the section about the sotah. Partway through, the woman began to walk away. She reached the stairs just as the Chida finished the last words. Her foot stopped on the step, her face twisted, and with a cry she fell and died. People ran to the scene as she took her last breath, and they saw the miracle.