AN ERETZ YISRAELDIKE YID
Rav Avrohom Dov of Avritch, mechaber of Bas Ayin and a talmid of Rav Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev, was visiting Zhitomir. He went to see the Toldos Aharon, Rav Aharon Zhitomir, also a talmid of Rav Levi Yitzchok. The Avritcher found Rav Aharon lying sick in bed. Rav Aharon was very glad to see Rav Avrohom Dov. “I will only be cured when I drink water that came from Eretz Yisrael,” he explained. “I know that you are planning to travel there. In fact, your thoughts are already there, and as we both know, wherever a person’s thoughts are, that is where the person is. Please, Rav Avrohom, take a mouthful of water and place it in a vessel. It will be just like water that came from Eretz Yisrael. I will drink it and be healed.”
And so it was.
The Avritcher wondered, though, how Rav Aharon could possibly know of his deep longing to move to the Holy Land. He had not told his plans to a soul. It was just an idea in his mind, and yet Rav Aharon knew all about it!
When Rav Mordechai of Slonim related this tale, he added that the Avritcher discusses this concept in his sefer Bas Ayin. He quotes Rashi’s comment in Vayishlach that the messengers that Yaakov sent to Esav were in fact malochim, and Rav Aharon writes: “We must seek to understand how malochim from the Holy Land [what does it mean they came from the Holy Land? Don’t malochim dwell in a spiritual realm above?] could come to Yaakov when he had not yet entered Eretz Yisrael. He hadn’t even reached Sukkos yet! The Ramban asks this very question in his commentary and answers that since he was traveling to Eretz Yisrael, it was as if he had already arrived there.”
(Based on Ma’amar Mordechai 9 and Kisvei Rav Yoshe 4, p. 181. It’s important to note that in our printed version of the Ramban’s commentary, he does not pose this question in Vayishlach, but rather in Vayeitzei.)
The answer that the Bas Ayin gives doesn’t appear in the Ramban’s commentary at all. HaRav Yisrael Meir Mendelowitz, however, in his notes to Bas Ayin (Brooklyn, New York: 2006) adds that perhaps the answer can be found in the Ramban’s commentary to Eiruvin 17, where he discusses the concept that everywhere a man’s thoughts are, that is where he is. See also Meor Einayim (Yismach Lev, Kesubos), which discusses this at length. See also Shabbos 102a and Eiruvin 99a.
