When the Chazon Ish visited the Kosel and the Old City, together with Rav Osher Zelig Margolios, he stopped at the famed Yeshiva of the Mekubolim, Beis E”l, where he sat studying by heart in dveikus and remarked when he departed, “It is a great zechus to visit such a holy Beis Medrash of the Rashash, where great, holy Tzaddikim studied and davened with the secrets of Hashem – sod Hashem liyerei’ov!”
There in the Yeshiva is a side room where a hole leads down a stairway to a wide courtyard where a cavern is found. In this cavern, the Tzaddikim meditated in hisbodedus (seclusion), using yichudim and kabbalistic prayers and devotions. The Chazon Ish entered that room, descended those stairs, entered that cavern and declared, “This is truly a good place for hisbodedus.” There are those who claim that what happened in that cavern was that the Rashash, together with the Chida and Rav Chaim DiLaRoza fasted three days straight, davened, engaged in yichudim, rolled in the snow and attempted to hasten the end of days and the coming of Moshiach. After three days, they heard a heavenly voice declare, “My sons, you are forbidden to hasten the end; I must separate you so that you three do not remain as a group. I decree that one of you must go into exile!”
The three Tzaddikim drew lots and so it was that the Chida sold his possessions and left for Livorno, Italy, where he lived out the rest of his days. (Based on Rav Pe’alim and Chibas Yerushalayim as cited in Moron HaRashash, p. 241–244)
