Unable to Hear His Own Praise

Once, during Rav Hillel's travels as a maggid, a preacher who told tales of inspiration and rebuked the congregation to encourage teshuvah and adherence to Torah and mitzvos, came to Sanz. The holy Divrei Chaim of Sanz honored him greatly, saying, "Here comes a maggid whose sermons are truly sincere and said solely le'shem shomayim, for the sake and honor of Heaven."

The Sanzer Rav then honored him by introducing him to speak, saying words of Torah and then words of praise. A strange and startling thing then occurred. Rav Hillel sat listening with rapt attention to the Divrei Chaim's words of Torah, but as soon as the Sanzer began to praise him, Rav Hillel began to strain and gesture that he could not hear well. He cupped his hands around his ears and paid the closest attention to each word of praise. When the Divrei Chaim turned back to Torah, Rav Hillel returned to normal, and when the praise resumed, he again listened with rapt attention.

The people were beside themselves. How could the Divrei Chaim praise someone who seemed so full of himself that he listened to his own praise, not with shy embarrassment, but with such care that he strained to hear it more than the words of Torah?

Later, when they joked about it and asked the Sanzer Rebbe, the Divrei Chaim was taken aback and said in shock, "Fools, you have no measure of the tzaddik Rav Hillel at all. He is so holy and has trained his limbs so well that he hears Torah perfectly, yet when I praised him he could not hear his own praise at all. That is why he strained to listen. He thought I must be whispering."