The Leap From the Window

A great example of Reb Leibele's yiras shomayim (fear of Heaven) is told of him from his youth, when he was a young avreich in his father-in-law's home, absorbed in learning Torah. He was so lost in his learning that he did not notice he had a visitor. The wife of the local duke had come to see his wife about some matter. She knocked and received no answer, so she pushed the door open and stood spellbound by the tzaddik's singsong voice as he learned, completely engrossed.

After a while she grew a little annoyed that he had not noticed her at all, and she made her presence known. Reb Leibele looked up. He did not know who she was or why she had come. He thought of only one thing: he was alone with a woman who was not modestly dressed and was not his wife. His eyes darted to the door, but she was standing in front of it. Seeing no other way out of the issur yichud (the prohibition of being alone with a woman), he did the only thing he could and jumped from the second-story window to the ground below.

It is told that he limped for the rest of his life. His mesirus nefesh and his yiras shomayim remain a lesson for all generations.