The Printer's Own Signature
A printer cut a line from the Ohr Hachaim out of modesty, and Rav Pinchos showed him the mistake he had actually left behind.
A story ofRav Pinchos Shapira of Koritzהרב פנחס בן אברהם אבא שפיראProfile ›
Chassidim relate that a printer named Asher once brought Rav Pinchos a new edition of the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh, printed in Shklov in 5541. Rav Pinchos loved this sefer and was overjoyed to receive it. Then he opened to Parshas Re'eh, to the comments on a pasuk in Devarim, and saw that a line was missing: Moshiach Hashem shemo Chaim.
He asked Asher what had happened. The printer answered that he had removed it deliberately. Everyone knew the author's name was Chaim, so the line seemed to say that he was speaking of himself, and Asher could not bring himself to print such a thing.
Rav Pinchos was upset, and he pointed to another place, in Parshas Naso, where the Ohr Hachaim explains the Gemara in Sotah about a woman proven innocent, who was defiled neither by this man nor by another, bein me'ish zeh bein me'acher. In the version Asher printed, the last words had become bein me'Asher. A reader looking at the page would find the printer's own name there.
Chassidim relate this as a lesson in plain honesty: the printer had hesitated over words that were truly written, and had overlooked the one that was not.
Source: Imrei Pinchos, vol. 2, p. 59; Alef Kesav, no. 683
It is easy to judge others for what we think they got wrong, while our own page has a smudge on it. Today, before you correct someone, take a quiet moment and ask what small thing in your own conduct could use fixing. Pick one thing, such as a word you say too quickly or a task you rush, and do it more carefully. Being exacting with ourselves, and gentle with others, is a kind of faithfulness to the truth.