On the yahrzeit, members of the Sefardi communities also began to go to the holy grave. Initially, they would gather together to study his holy Torah, sitting and delving into the sefer Ohr HaChaim with reverence and awe, and only after they completed their study in his sefer would they go up to pray at the kever.
Holy and exalted tzaddikim have said that by studying the holy sefer Ohr HaChaim, one will have the special merit of being blessed with good children.
They explained the reason, saying that since the Ohr HaChaim did not merit to have offspring, he infused all his procreative power into his holy sefer. (As it is written in holy sefarim, anyone who has not merited to be blessed with lasting offspring should print his sefer and distribute it, thus fulfilling the mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying through increasing and enhancing the Torah. See the sefer Derech Pikudecha by the holy author of Bnei Yissaschar, mitzvas pru urevu, chelek hamachashavah, for further elaboration.)
There are already many accounts of childless couples who undertook to study the holy sefer Ohr HaChaim regularly, and thereby merited to be blessed with offspring.
I have already suggested, in my humble opinion, that just as this holy sefer has the power to bless one with children, it also has the power to grant salvation in finding a suitable and good match. For if one does not find his match, he cannot have children. Consequently, we learn that it also possesses the supreme merit of securing good matches!
[It is also widely accepted among the holy Jews that studying this sefer has other wonderful powers, such as its remarkable power to heal eye ailments. Those who have dim eyesight will recover by studying the Ohr HaChaim. These facts are well known.]
More than seventy years ago, after the Arabs expelled all the Jews from the Old City of Yerushalayim in pogroms, the Jordanian kingdom took control of the large cemetery on the Mount of Olives. They began to dig up and uproot many tombstones and graves from their places. The bones of the dead were disgracefully and contemptuously thrown out into the fields! These desecrators paid no attention to the place’s sanctity and built a large roadway in the middle of Har Hazeisim that still exists there today.) To build it, they plowed through many graves and destroyed tombstones, as is known.
Initially, the plan for the road’s route was to start right from the bottom of the mountain, in a direct continuation from an intersection at the beginning of the mountain, so that those coming from Har Habayis (through the Lions’ Gate) and going to the Kosel and other places could drive straight up from the base of the mountain. To this end, they began digging up the first section at the beginning of Har Hazeisim, the resting place of our holy Master, the Ohr HaChaim.
The Jordanian workers, as usual, paid no attention to the holy and ancient graves and tombstones on the Mount of Olives. They came in droves with all kinds of destructive tools and heavy equipment and began destroying the cemetery. But suddenly, as the tractor approached the holy grave of the Ohr HaChaim, the tractor inexplicably overturned, and the driver died on the spot.
The shock was great; the work halted, and experts were sent to investigate the circumstances of the tractor’s overturning. When they found nothing, the workers returned after a few days and tried to continue their destruction. But again, the miracle repeated itself; the second tractor also overturned, and its driver died like the first. After this happened several times, the Jordanians were forced to reroute the road away from that section. They began carving the road higher up the mountain as it is built today. Due to some inexplicable and mysterious reason, they could not build it directly from the intersection below.
Thus, the resting place of the tzaddik was guarded with supreme protection and constant Divine oversight, and the hands of the wicked did not succeed in harming it at all.
The holy gravesite of Rav Chaim ben Attar, the Ohr HaChaim zt”l, has long been known and publicized as a wondrous place for accepting prayer and the annulment of harsh decrees. This became especially evident a few years earlier, during the terrible Holocaust, when the Nazis, may their name be erased, attempted to enter the gates of Eretz Yisrael with their vile plan to destroy, kill, and annihilate chas veshalom. They had advanced to El-Alamein in nearby Egypt, and a terrible fear fell upon the land’s inhabitants. Everywhere, people gathered in fasting, prayer, and cries of supplication.
At that time, a large assembly was held at the holy grave of our Master, the Ohr HaChaim, with the participation of the great and righteous leaders of the generation, headed by the holy Rav Shlomo of Zvihl and the holy Rav of Husiatyn zt”l. After the prayer, as they were leaving, the Husiatyn Rebbe said to the Rav of Zvihl that, baruch Hashem, their prayers were effective, and no enemy would enter the gates of Yerushalayim. For he saw the Name of Hashem shining and radiating over the grave of the Ohr HaChaim!
Indeed, shortly after that great prayer assembly, the Nazis began to suffer defeats and failures on the battlefield in Egypt. Despite their previous victorious battles, which, under natural circumstances, should have enabled them to easily conquer Egypt and Eretz Yisrael, Heaven fought against them and pushed them back. All their vast forces were halted and completely defeated. For the Jews living in the Holy Land, it was a great salvation, thanks to the holy and exalted tzaddik, the Ohr HaChaim, may his merit protect us.
