Fur Coats Lined With Arrogance

Once the Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz noticed a very arrogant man whose self-satisfied smirk gave away his vanity.

"You think too much of yourself and regard yourself too highly," the Imrei Chaim rebuked him. "If you were in the beis medrash of my uncle, the Ateres Yehoshua, he would not even be able to look at you. He so hated ba'alei gaavah (arrogant people) that he could not spare them a glance without shivering with revulsion.

"My uncle used to say, 'I am waiting and wishing for the winter to pass already. All winter the ba'alei batim bundle up in fancy coats with fur linings and velvet collars turned up against the frost. But when they enter the shul and the beis medrash, they leave the coats on so as to feel important. Their arrogance knows no bounds.'"