Rabbi Avraham Dov of Avritch zt"l
Rabbi in Avritch, Zhitomir and Tzefas
Author: Bas Ayin
12 Kislev 5601
In 1830, Rabbi Avraham Dov of Avritch settled in the holy city of Tzefas. Although he had waited many years for the opportunity to bask in the spiritual light of the Land of Eretz Yisrael, once there he found life too difficult to bear. The hardships were all too apparent, while the holiness of the land was hard to discern.
When he felt he could bear no more, Rabbi Avraham Dov began to think of returning to his home in Avritch, where he had been the Rebbe since 1785. After all, he reasoned, he left his relatives and students behind in order to live in the Holy land, but it is to no avail, and he was suffering so bitterly.
When Rabbi Avraham Dov reached the decision to return to Europe, the winter rainy season in Eretz Yisrael was approaching. One day, as he was walking to his Shul for Mincha, he heard noises coming from the surrounding rooftops. He couldn't identify the strange sounds, so he asked the townspeople he passed for an explanation. They were amused that he didn't know.
"Here in Tzefas," they explained, "we have the custom of performing household chores on our flat roofs. We also use the roofs for storing food and other household supplies. The noise you hear is caused by the women scurrying about, removing everything from the roofs."
"But why are they doing that?" the Rebbe asked.
"Why, so that nothing gets ruined by the rain, of course," was the incredulous reply.
Rabbi Avraham Dov was still confused. He looked up at a sky as blue as the sea when there are no waves in sight. "It certainly doesn't look like rain," he said, hoping for some further clarification.
"Surely you remember that tonight will be the 7th of the month of MarCheshvan, when we start to say the prayer for rain. (In Eretz Yisrarl they start saying Vesen tal umatar on the 7th of Cheshvan. In Chutz la'aretz we start in December.) We beseech Hashem to be merciful and send rain to water our crops and provide water for us. Since we are sure that our Father in Heaven will hear our prayers and will heed our request, we take precautions so that our possessions won't be ruined when the rains come."
The unquestioning faith of the people affected the Rabbi deeply. Suddenly his eyes were opened and he saw the sublime heights of faith achieved by the simple Jews of the Holy Land. His pain and disappointment were replaced by a sense of awe at the holiness of the land and its people. At that moment, he abandoned all thoughts of returning to Avritch and began a new leg of his own spiritual journey in the Holy Land.
Shortly thereafter, he became established as the leader of the Tzefas Chassidic community.
In 1838 he was kidnapped by the vicious Druise who were then perpetrating a pogrom in Tzefas, as they had done also in 1834. They ordered him to write a ransom note to his community, but he refused. The Druze then put him in a sack and began to beat him. When they thought they heard in the distance the hoofbeats of approaching Egyptian cavalry they fled, leaving the rabbi tied in the sack. He was later found and returned to Tzefas.
In the deadly earthquake of 24 Teves 5597 (January 1, 1837), 5,000 people lost their lives, of whom 4000 were Jews, more than 80% of the community. It was between the afternoon and evening prayers, when most of the men were in Shul, that the tremors and rumblings suddenly began. Of all of Tzefas Shuls only two remained standing, and many hundreds of Jews at prayer perished under the collapsed debris. In the Shul of the Bas Ayin, as elsewhere, panic set in, and the congregants began to bolt for the outdoors.
"Come to the Aron Hakodesh if you wish to be saved!" shouted the Rebbe in a powerful voice. Immediately everyone crowded around him. The Rebbe threw himself on the ground, praying and weeping. Local tradition records that although most of the building collapsed, the part where the men were clustered remained upright and everyone was saved. A plaque outside the Shul today testifies to this miracle. The line between the original structure (over the Aron Hakodesh) and the reconstructed portion is clearly visible. One source states that while nearly all the walls collapsed, the domed ceiling miraculously remained aloft, almost as if it were suspended in the air!
Just before Rabbi Avraham Dov passed away in the epidemic of 1840, he announced that his would be the last life claimed by the terrible plague. And so it was.
