The Serpent Belt

Rav Chaim Palagi told that the author of Shevet Mussar once woke early one morning and rose to study Torah. As he put on his belt, he did not notice that he had accidentally lifted a live, long serpent from the floor and tied it around his own waist. It was dark and he could not see, so he simply tied the snake like a belt.

In this manner the tzaddik sat down and learned. As he swayed back and forth to the singsong of the learning, the knot slowly came undone and the snake unwound itself and slithered off, miraculously without biting him.

To commemorate this miracle, Rav Eliyohu wrote the sefer Ezor Eliyohu, "the belt of Eliyohu." Those who know his seforim say the story is not hard to believe of a man of his stature.