There was once a very wealthy man who lived on a huge estate, filled with many expensive and antique items. Among the many things he possessed was a sefer Torah written by Ezra Hasofer. When he passed away, he was survived by his two sons. He did not leave a will. The sons were left with the task of deciding who will inherit what portion of the estate. Both sons were willing to forfeit all the riches in exchange for the special sefer Torah. To resolve the issue they went to their rav to have him pasken who should get the sefer Torah. The rav told them to make a goral. The priest of the town heard of this incident. He was a Jewish man who had converted and was a vicious self-hating Jew. He couldn’t stand it that someone would actually give up vast riches for a sefer Torah. One night, the priest stealthily slunk into the beis midrash and removed the sefer Torah from the ark. He opened the sefer Torah to the pasuk “va’avad’tem es Hashem Elokeichem—and you will serve Hashem…” He erased the letter ayin and replaced it with an alef. Now it read “v’ibad’tem—and you shall make lost…” When the time came for the people of the shul to read that pasuk in the Torah and they realized the mistake, the entire shul was in an uproar. The congregants couldn’t understand how this sefer Torah could contain such a bad mistake.
How could Ezra Hasofer have written kefirah? Or perhaps this was a fraud and it wasn’t really his sefer Torah? The man who owned this sefer Torah was devastated. How could this have happened? How could this Torah have such a bad mistake? For this he had forfeited all his father’s wealth? He was so heartbroken that he literally became sick and was bedridden. One night his father came to him in a dream. “My son, there is no need to be tormented. You should know this sefer Torah was written by Ezra Hasofer. Someone deliberately ruined it. Tonight Ezra Hasofer himself will repair the Torah. Tomorrow when you open the sefer Torah you will see everything is written correctly. As proof that everything I told you is true, look underneath the bimah. You will find an eye of a person.” The next day he came to the shul and took out the sefer Torah. To his amazement it had been fixed. He showed his fellow congregants the Torah and told them to look under the bimah. They were stunned when they found an eye of a person on the floor. A short while later news reached the Jewish people of the town. The priest of the town had lost an eye. Ayin tachas ayin. An ayin (an eye) for the letter ayin.
