The Missing Words in the Ohr Hachaim

A printer from Russia named Asher once came to Rav Pinchos with a copy of the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh that he had printed in Shklov, in the year Tav-Kuf-Mem-Alef (5541). Rav Pinchos, who held the sefer in great esteem, was at first overjoyed to receive a new edition. But when he turned to Parshas Re'eh, he was deeply disappointed. At the end of the Ohr Hachaim's comments on the pasuk in Devarim (15:7), the words "Moshiach Hashem shemo Chaim" were missing.

He asked the printer why he had left out the line. The printer explained that he had done so on purpose. "Everyone knows the author meant himself, since his name is Chaim. How could I print such a thing? So I left it out."

Rav Pinchos was very upset. He turned to Parshas Naso (Bamidbar 5:22) and pointed to another printing mistake in the book, and this time it was a real one. "Here," he said to the stunned printer, "see for yourself. Your own signature has been left in your edition." He showed him the Ohr Hachaim's words on the Gemara in Sotah 18a, which says that the sotah is declared pure because she was not defiled, "not by this man and not by another," in the original, "bein me'ish zeh bein me'acher." In Asher's edition it read "bein me'Asher," and so the printer had left his own name in the text.