The Chida Who Would Not Speak

Early in his travels, the Chida was welcomed warmly and with great honor. His fame had gone ahead of him, the rabbonim already studied his seforim, and a few of the laymen recognized him. In much of Europe, though, his name was still unfamiliar, and wherever he went people asked to see a letter of approbation that would vouch for him.

Somewhere on the exhausting road, the Chida lost all his papers. In the next city he introduced himself to the rov, but he had nothing to show that he was truly the Chida and not an impostor. The rov demanded that he say some of the chiddushim found in the Chida's seforim, since a person who knew them well would have proven himself.

The Chida refused. His assistant, Chacham Shmuel Ben Chaim, urged him to speak, warning that the townspeople would drive him out in disgrace and nothing would be collected for the poor. The Chida would not move. He was mocked and humiliated, and finally he wrote to Chevron asking them to send new papers quickly.

When the letter arrived, the elders of the city apologized again and again and begged him to speak. They asked why he had not simply told them some Torah and spared himself the shame. The Chida answered, “Where people know me and ask me to speak words of Hashem or to draw hearts close to our Father in Heaven, I do not refuse, for that is the purpose of man, to bring glory to the Torah. But I cannot use Torah to win honor for myself. You wished to test me through Torah and make me display myself with it, and that is not permitted. I preferred to be suspected of fraud rather than use the crown of Torah for my own benefit.” The people were deeply moved and quickly collected a large sum for his cause.