Shirat HaYam and Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh

Sipurei Tzadikim

 Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh was known for his hospitality and always made sure to welcome guests. One Passover evening, when there were no guests in his home, the rabbi sent his assistant to find him a guest. After some time, the attendant saw a man near the cemetery, standing and weeping bitterly. When asked why he was crying on such a day, the man replied that he was asking Hashem to take his soul. The attendant hurried back to the rabbi's home and told him about the man. The rabbi rushed to the cemetery and asked the man to tell him about his troubles. The man refused until Rabbi Chaim ben Attar swore to him that, with G-d's help, he would assist him with his problem. The man then told his story: «I am from the city of Sale in Morocco. I left my home and my wife in order to earn a living. With G-d's help, I succeeded in my trade, and after ten difficult years of separation, I decided to return home to my family with the money I had saved, so that we could enjoy being together after our long separation. I exchanged all my money for valuable precious stones, so that they would be easier to transport, and placed everything in a small iron box. I was sailing on a ship, and when we had already reached the shore, as I was disembarking, I suddenly stumbled and fell. Everything I was holding slipped from my hands into the sea, and the shoe on the foot with which I had stumbled fell in as well. I lost my senses and wanted to jump into the sea too, but people stopped me, and in an instant I became a pauper once again,» he said, and began to weep bitterly again. Rabbi Chaim ben Attar took pity on the man, raised his eyes toward Heaven in great awe, and Ruach HaKodesh rested upon him. He said to the man: «Stand up and show me where the box fell.» They went to the sea, and the man showed Rabbi Chaim ben Attar the spot. Ohr HaChaim stood and began reciting «Shirat HaYam». Immediately, many objects rose to the surface of the water, including the man's little box. Ohr HaChaim said to him: «Take only what belongs to you!». The man took his box and his lost shoe and, filled with great joy, thanked the Almighty and the tzadik. They then went together to Ohr HaChaim's home to celebrate Pesach. Gaon Rabbi Yehuda Turjeman related that in the book of the great Kabbalist Rabbi Natan Neta Shapira, author of «Megaleh Amukot» (Revealer of the Depths [Secrets]), it is written that when Mashiach comes, he will utter the Shem HaMeforash by the sea, and all the wealth from Yam Suf and from all the seas in which it once sank will emerge, and Am Yisrael will receive all these gifts from the sea.   (Based on a lesson by Gaon Rabbi Yehuda Turjeman)