The following story passed down to us from the Av Bais Din of Ladani, who heard it from Rav Avrohom Gottesman, who received this tradition from the famed mechaber of the Arugas Habosem:

“They all sat spellbound, listening to their Rebbe, the Tzaddik from Czernobyl, mechaber of the Meor Einayim, who, having concluded his discourse of Divrei Torah, had begun to speak of other more worldly matters. All sat still, all except one Chassid.

Slowly but surely, inch by inch, he crept forward. Another bit, and another bit, he slowly made his way down the table from the far side where he too had been sitting absorbing his Rebbe’s Divrei Torah. Slowly he inched along closer and closer, straining to hear his Rebbe’s words.

This was none other than Rav Avrohom Dov of Avritsh, the mechaber of the Bas Ayin. While most of the Chassidim sat enraptured and noticed nothing at all, there was one upstart who was annoyed by Rav Avrohom Dov’s slow advance toward the head of the table. He vocally objected most loudly to what he decided was a dishonorable move.

“So now you come, eh? Now you make your way to the head of the table, eh? The whole time the Rebbe said Torah, you sat content at the far end, but now that the discourse is over and the Rebbe’s discussions turn to more mundane matters, now you make your way over here, pushing and elbowing us all out of your way so you can sit yourself at the head of the table?!”

This sarcastic remark did not escape the Czernobyler Rebbe’s notice. The Meor Einayim turned, upset, not toward the Bas Ayin but instead toward this upstart and rebuked him, defending his talmid, the Bas Ayin’s behavior. “My talmid’s ears are pure. He has corrected them so that they are well attuned to hear the Torah that they need to hear and less so the mundane matters that they do not need to hear. When I recite Divrei Torah, he can even sit contentedly at the far end of the table and still listen and hear my words and absorb them from a distance. However, when it comes to sichas chullin and more mundane matters, even though there is what to learn from them too, he needs to exert more effort and sit close in order to hear better.”

When Rav Dovid Lelover passed away, his son, Rav Moshe, and his talmid, Rav Yisroel Yitzchok of Vurka, were unsure of which rebbe they should travel to from that point on. They decided to visit Rav Mordechai of Czernoble and when they arrived, he asked them from where they hailed:

“I come from Zarik,” answered Rav Yisroel Yitzchok who was a chassan.

“Hmmm,” murmured the Czernobler Maggid thoughtfully, “I cannot say that I have ever heard of that place before.” Zarik was a small town and in those pre-railroad days, travel was limited; outside one’s local environs, not every township was known.

“And you?” asked the Czernobler Maggid, this time turning towards his second guest. “I come from Lelov,” answered Rav Moshe. “Ahh, now Lelov-- yes, that is a place I have heard of,” replied Rav Mottele’eh. “Let me tell you both how I have heard of Lelov.” And this is the story he told his two guests:

“After my father, Rav Menachem Nuchem (author of the Meor Eynaim) passed away, he would descend from on High and visit me each night and we would study Torah together.” The two guests sat spellbound hearing this nonchalant description of otherworldly visits and spiritual chavrusas.

The Maggid continued: “Then, suddenly, a period of some forty days and nights passed when my holy father did not appear. I had no idea what had happened. Perhaps I had done something wrong? Then after forty days and nights my father reappeared and we continued to study together once more just as we had previously. I asked my father why he had been absent for these forty days and nights. Why had he not come? He answered me with the following:”

‘When a great tzaddik leaves this world, he is honored up in the heavens with delivering a derasha. From the time Rav Dovid Lelover had passed away and for forty days and nights hence, he delivered his heavenly discourse. The attendance of all the tzaddikim in heaven was mandatory, as was the presence of the entire heavenly hosts – the pamaliya shel maalah.

‘We all listened and heard the derasha for all forty days and nights and this is why I was absent and could not come to you and study with you until now.’

“This is how I have heard of Lelov,” concluded Rav Motteleh of Czernoble. Unable to hold back, Rav Yisroel Yitschok of Vurka steered Rav Moshe Lelov towards the Czernobler Maggid “Rebbe,” he addressed Rav Mottele, “this here, is Rav Dovid Lelover’s son!” Rav Moshe was very poor and his clothes were tattered. When the Czernobler understood who his guest was -  none other than the son of Rav Dovid Lelover -  he dressed Rav Moshe in new clothes and he showered them both with honor and respect. (Migdal Dovid p. 8)

Rav Menachem Nachum of Chernobyl was a master at the mitzvah of Pidyon Shevuyim, redeeming captives. He would journey from town to town to collect money to redeem Jews who had by some misfortune, found their way into the deep and dank dungeons of the Poritz, the local landowner.

Once, while he was in Zhitomir, the local gentiles found a way to slander the Rebbe and have him thrown into jail. While incarcerated, he was visited by one of the local rabbis who came to cheer him up and uplift his spirit by offering him words of chizuk and inspiration.

“Rav Nuchem!” the Rabbi said. “We know that Avraham Avinu excelled at Hachnosas Orchim, the mitzvah of receiving and welcoming guests. This is precisely why Hashem told him, “Lech Lecha, exile yourself from your land,” in order for Avraham Avinu himself to become a traveler. This way, he could learn and experience firsthand what a guest requires from his host. By traveling, he would become familiar with the needs of a traveler and would subsequently be able to fulfill the mitzvah of Hachnosas Orchim to the fullest.”

“Rav Nuchem!” the Rabbi concluded. “Hashem knows that you excel in the mitzvah of Pidyon Shevuyim. However, Hashem wanted you to succeed even more. Therefore, He orchestrated for you to be jailed so you could learn, through personal experience, what a prisoner feels like and to know how great a mitzvah you do!”

It is said that when one of the Rebbe’s talmidim collected his teachings and wrote them down, he then showed them to the tzaddik. The volume was as large a tractate of Talmud, and the Rebbe reviewed them all. He only allowed to be printed those divrei Torah which he had no recollection of having said, because those, he explained, were true Torah, where the Shechina (Divine Presence) had spoken through his mouth. (Otzar Yisrael 4)

The Meor Einayim was very poor and there was often no money to pay his large debts – and no food to feed his hungry household. The gabbai (his assistant) was therefore pleased and relieved to see that a visitor had handed the Rebbe a princely sum of three hundred rubles. After another few visitors had asked for the tzaddik’s blessings, the gabbai took the opportunity to request that the Rebbe give him money to pay off some outstanding debts and loans. The Rebbe opened the drawer of his rickety old desk and handed the gabbai some small copper and silver coins. The gabbai, who had been expecting three hundred rubles, couldn’t hold himself back.

“Rebbe!” he cried out, in consternation and despair. “Where are the three hundred rubles?”

The Rebbe explained, “Just before, a poor Jew came in complaining he had no money to pay a melamed to learn Torah with his children; he was behind on his rent to the Poritz and had no dowry to marry off his daughter who was languishing away at home. When I asked him how much he needed, he said three hundred rubles, so I gave him the money.”

“But Rebbe,”asked the gabbai incredulously, “how can the Rebbe give such a large sum to one Jew?”

“You know,” said the tzaddik, “for a fleeting moment the same thought crossed my mind too. It said, ‘Why give the sum to one man, when you could divide and distribute it among many families?’ I realized any such thoughts surely came from You Know Who – the Other Side – The yetzer hara. Since that was my first thought I made sure to give him the entire sum.” (Otzar Yisrael 9)

It was Rosh HaShana and the holy tzaddik, the Minchas Elozor of Munkacz, approached the lectern to begin the sermon before Shofar blowing. Among his holy words he retold the tale:

The holy tzaddik, the Meor Einayim, was libeled by the Misnagdim and the government threw him into jail. He languished in prison for two weeks. Then, as he sat in his cell, our Matriarch, Mamme Rochel, came to him and promised him that he would go free – and so he did. Then the Munkasczer Rav turned heavenward and spread his arms out to Shomayim, crying out with bitter tears of longing, “Mamme, Mamme – Mother!!!  Rav Nachum Czernobyler sat just two weeks in prison and you freed him! Mother, what about us?! For two thousand bitter years we are exiled and imprisoned – why don’t you free us? Let us out!” he cried. The awakening was so great that the Chassidim said the very walls of the Bais Medrash shed tears. (Siach Zekeinim VII p. 325)

Rav Mordechai of Slonim once told how the holy Ba’al Shem Tov confronted his student , Rav Nachum Czernobyler and asked him why he had split the very heavens that day during the afternoon Mincha prayers. Defending his actions, the Meor Einayim recounted how he had traveled by wagon in the freezing cold weather. Just as they neared the neighboring village, the old gentile wagon driver passed out in the snow and died. When the wagon got to the village, the gentiles attacked Rav Nachum, screaming that he had murdered the wagon driver and how they would retaliate by lynching him.

“I begged them to let me have my last rites, and as I davened Mincha to Hashem and beseeched the heavens, the wagon driver’s body revived – he got up and, before the frightened and astonished villagers, declared how he had died of frostbite and hypothermia and not by my hand. After he told them this, he fell back down again dead, and I was saved and reprieved. Perhaps that is what you heard from the Heavens?” (Mizekeinim Esbonon II - page 57:3)

Rav Tal Zwecker heard this story from Rav Moshe Weinberger Mara DeAsra of Aish Kodesh, Woodmere, NY, who heard it from the ba'al ha'maase himself (the protagonist of the story). There was once a talmid chacham who was not a chassid. Unfortunately as he grew older his eyesight deteriorated and he was slowly becoming blind, rachmana litzlan. His family urged him to visit Rav Yoel of Satmar zt”l, well known for his blessings and their wondrous ability to miraculously aid and heal others. However, he refused stating that he was no chassid and would not go to a chassidishe rebbe for a blessing. Eventually as his eyesight grew worse and he could no longer study or learn Torah his family convinced him to visit Rav Yoel not because of his fame or stature as a wonder working rebbe but as his fame as a talmid chacham (a learned man) for the Gemara tells us to request the blessings and prayers of a talmid chacham for the sick. Rav Yoel, told him that he should study the chassidishe book Meor Eynaim (which means the light of the eyes) and that that would aid his failing eyesight., The more and more he studied the more he regained his eyesight until Baruch Hashem he was able to see normally once again! Tzaddik gozer, a righteous tzaddik decrees and Hashem fulfills.

Rav Chaim Meir Hagar author of Imrei Chaim of Vizhnitz once told his chassidim on the occasion of the Czernobler's Yahrzeit, that the Meor Eynaim, SeMacht Lichtig Der Oigen – It enlightens the eyes! He once told the following story:

During one of the Meor Eynaim's many travels he stayed at a Jewish inn and spent the night. The innkeeper and his wife were simple Jews and when the Czernobler began to recite the Tikkun Chatzos prayers and when the sounds of his loud sighs, moans and crying reached the ears of his hosts they were startled.

“Surely our guest is not feeling well,” declared the innkeeper's wife. “Please go and see to him.”

The innkeeper went downstairs with a candle in hand, and as it cast its  light in the darkness he was startled to hear the moaning, groaning, sighing and crying continue to come from the guest room. He knocked and opened the door apologizing, “I am sorry to disturb you, but I overheard your pain, are you not feeling well, how can we help you?”

The Rebbe turned to his host and explained, “Thank G-d I am Baruch Hashem feeling fine, however I was just reciting Tikkun Chatzos.” “Hmmm. . .Tikkun Chatzos?” asked the puzzled innkeeper scratching his head and pulling at his beard, “what's that?” “It is the prayer recited over the destruction of our holy temple, the Beis Hamikdash,” explained the Rebbe patiently. “What is the Beis Hamikdash?” asked the innkeeper. The Czernobler proceeded to explain how all the Jews once dwelled in the holy land, and how Hashem had commanded them to build a temple, and how they had worshipped there before it was destroyed due to our many sins and we were dispersed in the exile. “And soon,” explained the Rebbe with a note of yearning and longing, “Moshiach will come and gather us all in from the exile, bring us back up to Eretz Yisroel, surely you anticipate his coming any day as we all do?”

At this query the simple innkeeper grew even more perplexed, “Hmmm. . .I am not sure. Let me go and ask my wife.” He went back upstairs, told his wife about their guest’s special prayers of the temple, explained to her what he had said and asked her opinion on the matter. “Go and tell our guest,” said the innkeeper's wife, “that we have Baruch Hashem saved some money, here we own a flock of geese, some property and we have a way of life, why should we give all that up and move to Eretz Yisroel when Moshiach arrives?” The innkeeper turned and relayed his wife's words to the Rebbe. “Go and tell your wife that here in galus,” explained the Rebbe, “while we are in exile among the nations, the goyim torture and hurt us making our lives difficult and miserable, in Eretz Yisroel that will all end.”

Nodding his head in understanding the innkeeper went back to his wife and related to her what the Rebbe said adding “Don’t you remember what happened last week when Ivan, our neighbor got drunk and smashed all our windows? In Eretz Yisroel the Rebbe promises we will not have these problems!” he stated. The innkeeper's wife thought a bit and then her eyes filled with a light of understanding and her expression filled with comprehension.

“Aha, I've got it! Go and tell the Rebbe, I have a solution. Here we are comfortable and settled. We own property and the only problem is the goyim. Tell the Rebbe that when Moshiach comes he will solve all our problems by taking the goyim with him to Eretz Yisroel!”

When the holy Czernobler heard the innkeeper's answer, he said “Now I understand the meaning of the verse in Parshas VaEra Shemos 6:6 Hashem says “I will take you out from the sufferings of Mitzrayim,” I will cause you to no longer be able to suffer and endure the exile and then you will want to go out. That is our sin,” exclaimed the Rebbe, “we have become so settled to living in the exile in our complacency we are happy and believe there can be nothing better - how wrong we are!”