A NEW YESHIVA AND A NEW TALMID OF THE OHR HACHAIM
When the Tzaddik Rav Chaim ben Attar came to live in Eretz Yisrael, his main focus was to establish a holy lofty Yeshiva and Bais Medrash, whose purpose was to study Torah lishma on the highest level. Its students would sit all day immersed in their studies, never uttering any mundane words, wrapped in tallis, crowned in tefillin and unifying the Shechina as they studied Gemora and Rambam, delving into the depths of the Talmud, swimming in its seas and immersing in the words of dvar Hashem zu Halocha. As he himself testified in a letter written on the 22nd of Shevat tov-kuf-bais to the financial supporters of the Yeshiva in Mantuba, Italy, he named the Bais Medrash “Heichal Ahava – Medrash Kenesses Yisrael – the Chamber of Love”, to awaken Hashem’s love for Kenesses Yisrael (Kenesses Yisrael alludes to the Shechina). From the Diaspora, Rav Chaim ben Attar brought with him talmidim, and gained new ones in Yerushalayim – among whom was the great Rav Chaim Yosef Dovid Azulai – the Chida. (Ner HaMaaravi, ch. 24 p. 227)
THE CHIDA'S TESTIMONY ON THE OHR HACHAIMS PREPARATION FOR KIDDUSH
Once, when the Chida was on one of his travels in the lands of Ashkenaz, one of the Admorim asked him to relate a story that described his Rebbe’s holy avoda in nigla and in nistar, and here is one of the tales he told:
The Ohr HaChaim had a special minhag to prepare himself to make Kiddush on Shabbos. Every Erev Shabbos he would sit and study and review with his talmidim the laws of testimony and witnesses – Hilchos Eidus in the Rambam. They would especially review the laws dealing with what things disqualified a witness and rendered him posul – unfit to give testimony. They studied this in order to do full teshuva [over any of these disqualifications.] Not only did the Ohr HaChaim do this as a preparation before making Kiddush, but when he picked up the Kiddush cup to recite the berocha over it, he would be aflame with such excitement and thoughts of teshuva and kedusha that all those present were also seized with pangs of regret and remorse so great that they would beg and plead that they too should merit to be eidim kesherim (proper witnesses) to testify to the Creation of the world in six days! (By Rav Yitzchok Alfaya in Kuntres HaYachieli Section Bais Hashem Chapter Middos Tovos #18)
THE OHR HACHAIM'S BROCHA THAT HE SHOULD BE LIKE AHARON HAKOHEN
Rav Yekusiel Yehuda of Sanz-Klausenberg told the following story one Sholosh Seudos [see Shefa Chaim on Parshas Naso tov-shin-mem-daled] (also found in the kuntres Tav Chaim as a prelude to certain editions of the Chida’s sefer Shem HaGedolim):
Although the Chida was counted among the younger of the Ohr HaChaim’s talmidim, still Rav Chaim ben Attar greatly admired him, drew him close and bestowed upon the Chida a special and unique berocha that from Heaven the Chida should be sanctified with the kedusha of Aharon HaKohen!
At first the Chida misconstrued his Rebbe’s meaning and thought he had been blessed with the ability to give berochos to Am Yisrael be’ahava just as Aharon and the Kohanim bless the Jewish people. However, decades later, the true meaning of this special berocha was revealed in the following amazing manner:
In his old age, the Chida ended up in Leghorn, Italy, which the Jews know as Livorno. He had refused the position of Rav again and again, although the various communities’ elders and leaders tried to have him take up the post. Instead, the Chida preferred to sit and learn Torah uninterrupted except for a four-year stint when he took up the post of Rav while he was in Egypt. Nonetheless, although he held no official title or position, all the Jews knew of his greatness and accorded him the honor and respect due to a sage and Talmid Chochom, one of the Gedolim of the generation.
One day, a community leader came before the Chida and complained to him that his wife had been seen alone in the company of another man. “If this is so,” said the Chida, “you must divorce her, give her a get and she loses any rights to collect her kesuba.”
The Dayonim heard his decision and were baffled; how could he decide such a matter without any testimony or evidence? But they dared not contradict his ruling. The Chida asked that the wife be summoned to the place in the Bais Medrash where he sat and studied, immersed in Torah. The Chida tried to persuade her gently and kindly to accept a get of divorce from her husband, but the woman was brazen and arrogant. She answered the Rav back with chutzpa and as she spat back her arguments to the Rav, the Chida remembered the berocha he had received from the Ohr HaChaim, his Rebbe, all those years ago.
Turning to the insulting woman, the Chida asked, “Please, I have just one request. Listen as I read aloud to you a portion from the Parsha in the Torah.”
The arrogant woman acquiesced to this one request and stood still as the Chida took out a Torah and began to recite the Parsha of Naso where the Torah describes the sota. As the Chida read the pesukim the woman began to leave in the middle – but she did not escape in time, for just as she reached the stairs, the Chida concluded reading the Parsha of the sota, and no sooner did he finish the last words than she stopped with her foot resting on the step, while her face contorted and her eyes bulged out of their sockets. With a shriek she collapsed and dropped dead. Hearing her outcry, many people rushed to the scene as she breathed her last, and witnessed this miraculous event.
WHAT DELAYED THE OHR HACHAIM FROM HIS SHIUR IN YESHIVA
Rav Chaim Yosef Arye Prager of Brisk writes how the Chida once met the Gaon Rav Dovid Ashkenazi of Bichov, who lived in Teverya and was sent by Rav Avrohom Kalisker to collect funds for the nascent and struggling Chassidishe yishuv there. Rav Dovid traveled in the west for some seven years collecting, and on one of his travels he met the Chida in Livorno. During their discussion about how greatly esteemed his Rebbe, the Ohr HaChaim, was among the Chassidim, the Chida replied humbly that he did not consider himself worthy of being called a true talmid who knew the Ohr HaChaim, claiming that he was just someone who had studied there in his Yeshiva. He then related to Rav Dovid the following amazing story about his Rebbe, Rav Chaim ben Attar, the Ohr HaChaim:
Once, the Ohr HaChaim was late to arrive at the Yeshiva. This was uncharacteristic of him and all the talmidim who had gathered at the appointed time for his shiur wondered at this departure from custom. When the hour grew late and the delay continued, the Chida gathered his courage and himself went to his Rebbe’s home to see what the delay was about and to call on the Ohr HaChaim. When he got there, he engaged Rav Chaim in conversation and the Ohr HaChaim told the Chida in a totally nonchalant and dismissive manner as part of the conversation, “I was late because I was stuck on a difficult Tosafos which I simply couldn’t unravel or understand at all until...Rabbeinu Yitzchok, one of the Ba’alei Tosafos, came and explained to me what he meant.”
IT WAS ONLY L'SHEM SHAMAYIM
The Ohr HaChaim used to make frequent trips with his talmidim to daven at kivrei Tzaddikim in Yerushalayim. The Chida described one such trip that he himself went on and accompanied the Ohr HaChaim and what he saw the Ohr HaChaim do on that occasion:
“In my youth I merited to travel together with the wondrous holy Chassid, our Master, Rav Chaim ben Attar and the students of his Yeshiva, to travel to daven at the kivrei Tzaddikim in Yerushalayim. When we reached the matzeiva of the Rav, author of the sefer Pri Chodosh, we watch as the Rav [the Ohr HaChaim] remained there alone for some fifteen minutes or more, davening at the kever, and his lips moved as he was talking and we understood that he was asking mechila from the Pri Chodosh that he be forgiven [for Rav Chaim ben Attar, in his sefer Pri To’ar, would rule against him and argue on some of his points] and that all that he did was purely L’shem Shomayim (for the sake of Heaven).” (Shem HaGedolim, Section on Seforim, Entry for Pri To’ar)
'PLEASE DO THIS TASK BY YOURSELF'
One of Rav Mordechai Eliyohu's early predecessors as Rishon L'Tzion, Sephardic Chief Rav of Eretz Yisrael, was Rav Yitzchak Nissim, who had a special appreciation and admiration for the Chida. One of Rav Nissim's friends was Dr. Shlomo Umberto Nachon, a native of Livorno (Leghorn), where the Chida lived the end of his life and was buried.
In the late 1950’s, Dr. Nachon learned that the Italian authorities wished to build a highway through the Jewish cemetery of Livorno. He quickly informed Chief Rav Nissim and, understanding the urgency of the situation, they decided it was time to move the Chida to Eretz Yisrael. Dr. Nachon made the arrangements with the authorities in Livorno, and in 1960 Rav Nissim commissioned, after much coaxing, the then thirty-one-year-old Rav Mordechai Eliyohu, who was known to be intimately familiar with the Chida's writings, to head a team of esteemed Sephardic rabbonim (which included Rav Yisrael Abuhatzeira, the Baba Sali, and his brother the Baba Haki, Rav Yitzchak Abuhatzeira, chief Rav in the city of Ramle, who was an expert in Jewish burials in his native Morocco) for the reinterring of the bones of the Chida in Yerushalayim.
Rav Eliyohu related that when he arrived at Lod Airport with the other rabbonim, he met with the agency representative who had brought the bones of the Chida in a small wooden coffin. When the Rav saw it, he was appalled "What is this?" he asked. "The bones of the Chida are rolling around in a miniature coffin? How can such a thing be?"
He asked that a larger coffin be brought, so that the bones could transferred to it and be laid out properly for an honorable burial. Then he requested that the Baba Haki's driver go with his driver, and that they immerse in a mikva [ritual bath], and afterwards buy a Phillips screwdriver to open the coffin.
When they returned, Rav Mordechai Eliyohu made a large hole in the bottom of the new large coffin so that there would be no barrier between the bones and the soil upon burial, but temporarily closed the hole with a stopper. Then the small coffin was inserted into the larger one.
Rav Eliyahu had the small coffin opened, whereupon he put his hand in to arrange the bones. But after a few moments, he trembled and closed his eyes. Saying in a broken voice that he had no power to do it, he asked pleadingly that the Chida ‘please do this task by yourself’ to put his own bones in order!
Immediately, a powerful, almost explosive sound was heard, the coffin began to shake, and a rattling sound - made by the Chida's remains striking the coffin's walls -- was heard. All the other rabbonim fainted on the spot. Rav Mordechai did not faint, explaining afterwards that his absorption in the mitzva helped him remain conscious.
It was beyond belief! The banging and shaking continued until, bone by bone, until the entire skeleton was arranged perfectly - in the merit of the holy Rav, the Chida!
"Hashem will grant you special Providence, and bring my remains out of this place." [Bereishis 50:25]
"He said to me, 'Can these bones live?'...As I prophesied, there was a roaring sound, and the bones came together and joined one another.... 'I am going to open your graves; I will take you out of your graves, My People, and bring you to the Land of Israel.'" [Yechezkel 37:3, 7, 12]
Thousands accompanied the funeral procession from the Yerushalayim neighborhood of Sanhedria to the cemetery at Har HaMenuchos. At the burial, Rav Eliyohu described the events that had taken place as "Nisei nissim - absolute miracles."
At a later date, Rav Mordechai Eliyohu announced that whoever needs personal salvation can go to pray at the grave of the Chida.
It is no wonder that when Rav Mordechai Eliyohu passed on to his heavenly great reward fifty years later that he was buried near the Chida on Har HaMenuchos!
The Chida had finally come home. His memory continued to live in the hearts of his people. Many Jews used to make pilgrimages to his grave or send kvittlach to be deposited there, praying that the saintly Rav be an intercessor for them in the Heavenly Court.
(Ed. Note: Rav Mordechai Steiner Shlita related that the B’nei Yisasschar often was quoted that even if he can’t always find the source for the Chida’s Torah chidushim, he fully believes that they are accepted by the Bais Din Shel Ma’ala and his segulos are kodesh and divine. See B’nei Yisasschar Tishrei 4:14:39).
THE CHIDOH IN HONOR OF HIS YAHRTZEIT, 11TH ADAR
It is of interest to note that the Noam Elimelech, R' Elimelech of Lizhensk remarked that Hashem always keeps things equal. At the time that Mendelssohn came and wrote his heretical explanations on the Chumash, Hashem sent the Chida to counteract, with his holy seforim, strengthening our basic beliefs in Hashem.
