Rabbeinu Chida

Rabbeinu Chida (Chaim Yosef David Azulai) – the greatest kabbalist, author of "Sha'ar Yosef", "Birkei Yosef", "Machzik Bracha", "Torah Ohr", "Nachal Kedumim" (Ancient Stream) and "Rosh David" and other works. Yahrzeit - 11 Adar Resting place - Har HaMenuchot, Jerusalem Rabbeinu Chida, alav ha-shalom, was born at seven months and, as the story goes, seemingly lifeless. His grandmother came in and sensed there was still a scent (nefesh) of life in him, so she immediately took him in her arms, wrapped him in a blanket, and warmed him - the boy came to and began to breathe. His grandson, Rabbi Moshe ben Rabbi Raphael, inherited Rabbeinu Chida's cane. The cane was covered in silver and was called "makel drachim". Inscribed on it was: יִרְעַ֤ם הַיָּם֙ וּמְלוֹא֔וֹ יַעֲלֹ֥ץ הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה וְכָל־אֲשֶׁר־בּֽוֹ "Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and all that is in it" (1 Divrei HaYamim 16:32) - this is Rabbeinu Chida's segula for a safe journey. This cane was once stolen, but was later returned. At the end of every letter or halachic ruling that Rabbeinu Chida wrote, he would place his seal-signature and add two letters - ס.ט - "samech tet" - and everyone wondered what it meant. Rabbeinu Chida then explained that he was called "HaTayar HaGadol" (the great wanderer) and that he had endured great yisurim (sufferings), so he always signed with the letters ס.ט "sof tov" (a good end), believing that this would indeed be so. He was the beloved student of the great Rabbi Chaim ben Attar - the Or HaChaim, becoming his closest and most devoted follower, and later also of the great Rashash - Rabbi Shalom Sharabi. On the last day of Sukkot in the year 5503/1743, the young Chida witnessed how the Or HaChaim prayed continuously for an entire day and night, sitting on the floor of his room. Chida noted that in the evening, at the start of the prayer, his teacher's face "shone like the sun", then he "wept bitterly... all night", and the following evening, at the onset of Simchat Torah, his face once again shone with light. Rabbi Chaim Ibn Attar explained to his students that he had been praying for the coming of Mashiach - and from his words Chida understood that his teacher himself "was capable of and destined to become Mashiach", in order to bring the Jewish people the final redemption, but because of the sins of the generation he was not permitted to "reveal himself" and fulfill his purpose. And so, in his night prayer, sitting on the floor of his room, Rabbi Chaim Ibn Attar reached an agreement with the Heavenly Court: that year, at the age of forty-seven, he would leave this world, atoning through his death for the sins of the entire generation. (Toldot Or HaChaim HaKadosh, p. 50) After the passing of the Or HaChaim (zechuto yagen aleinu), Chida turned to studying the secrets of the Torah with Rabbi Shalom Sharabi (Rashash) at the kabbalists' yeshiva "Beit El". Soon afterward, Chida left for Europe. The head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Sar-Shalom Sharabi, believed that the time of the geula (the final redemption of the Jewish people) was drawing near. He chose two of his closest students, Rabbi Azulai and Rabbi Chaim De-Laroza, to join him in prayer to sway the decision of the Heavenly Court toward geula. They fasted for three days in a row, then climbed to the roof of the yeshiva and immersed themselves in meditative prayer. Through profound kabbalistic kavanot, they managed to make contact with the Heavenly Court. It was revealed to them that although the time of the geula had not yet come and the people of Israel were not ready for it, their combined prayer could nonetheless trigger a premature revelation of Mashiach, with catastrophic consequences for the entire universe. To prevent this, the three tzadikim had to separate immediately - by order of the Heavenly Court - and one of them had to leave the Holy Land, where prayers hold special power. The lot fell upon Rabbi Chaim-Yosef David Azulai. (Vezeh Sha'ar HaShamayim, p. 163) He served as rabbi in Cairo for five years. He then completed his second journey to Livorno (Italy), where he remained for the rest of his life. On every trip, Chida would visit libraries, striving to review thousands of manuscripts, and from them compiled the sefer "Shem HaGedolim", containing the biographies of 1,300 sages. Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk said that Ha-Shem always maintains balance. At the time when Mendelssohn appeared with his heretical commentary on the Chumash, Ha-Shem sent Rabbeinu Chida in response, with his sacred books strengthening the foundations of our faith in G-d. Sotah One of the respected citizens of Livorno, descended from a family of kohanim, came to Rabbeinu Chida with a complaint about his wife, who, despite his warning, had secluded herself in a room with a certain outside man. Rabbeinu Chida ruled that, according to Torah law, the husband was obligated to divorce his unfaithful wife. However, some of the dayanim of Livorno, who had family ties to the suspected woman's family, claimed that "in such a serious matter, one cannot rely solely on the clairvoyance" of Rabbi Azulai - since there were no witnesses in the room where the kohen's wife had secluded herself with the man who could confirm the act of infidelity. Then Rabbi Chida invited the suspected woman to his beit midrash. He took out a Torah scroll and read before her the entire portion of Sotah, dealing with the test of a wife suspected of being unfaithful to her husband. "If no man has lain with you," he read, "and you have not gone astray to defilement while under your husband's authority, be free from this bitter water that induces the curse... But if you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, and if you have defiled yourself, and some man other than your husband has lain with you... then may the L-rd make your thigh sag and your belly swell..." (Bamidbar 5:19-21). No sooner had the woman left the room than her face turned yellow, her eyes bulged from their sockets - and within moments, everything described in this portion of the Torah happened to her body. In memory of this event, the leaders of the Livorno community ordered that the spot where the adulteress had been exposed from Heaven for her crime be covered in gold leaf. (Gedolei HaDorot) The Empty Vessel Once, a coarse and uneducated Jew came to Rabbi Chida and demanded that Chida recommend him to the rabbi of another city as a decent man endowed with outstanding qualities. The sage tried to avoid it, but the boor was persistent and eventually resorted to threats. It was late at night in the empty beit midrash, and there was no one to call for help - so Chida decided to write a letter, hiding the true recommendation between the lines. In the letter, the petitioner's imagined virtues were given very high praise. The letter began: "This man is so great that, had he lived in the days of the prophet Elisha, the stream of olive oil would never have run dry." (The fourth chapter of the Book of Melachim tells of a poor widow with many children. Elisha, the disciple of the prophet Eliyahu, told her to gather all the empty vessels in her house and fill them from a jug of precious olive oil. A miracle occurred: the oil did not run out until all the vessels were full.) The boor was triumphant. However, the rabbi to whom he brought the lengthy letter of recommendation sensed that something was off. Looking again at the bearer of the recommendation, he carefully reread the letter and understood: Chida was telling him that this man is an empty vessel, devoid of any inner substance, and that the letter itself had apparently been written under duress. The boor immediately received his due: he was disgracefully driven out of the city. (Yaakov Shechter) Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai (Chida) once set out as a communal emissary abroad. On the ship he encountered a merchant transporting a cargo of non-kosher cheese to Italy. The merchant knew that Rabbi Chaim was known in every Jewish community, and that a document certifying the cheese as kosher, signed by Rabbi Chaim, would help him sell his goods for a large profit. The merchant tried to persuade the Rav, even offering him a great sum of money, but the Rav remained firm. Then the merchant hired sailors, who attacked the Rav, threatening to throw him into the sea if he did not sign the required document. Seeing that his life was in danger, Rabbeinu Chida agreed to sign the document, writing: "The cheese being sold is completely kosher. Let the poor eat of it and be satisfied," and he concluded: "Written and signed on the Tuesday of the weekly Torah portion: 'And thus you shall eat it: your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste - it is a Pesach offering to the L-rd' (Shemot 12:11), in the year 5508." Upon arriving in Italy, the merchant began advertising his cheese as perfectly kosher and approved by Rabbeinu Chida. However, according to the law, the merchant was required to appear before the rabbi of the city and present Rabbi Chaim's certification. The city's rabbi read the document and was puzzled: why did Chida note that the Torah excerpt was found in the Book of Shemot? After all, even a child knows that! Furthermore, the rabbi noticed that the word שמות was written as an abbreviation of the words: שניים מקרא ואחד תרגום - "shnayim mikra ve'echad targum" (twice Torah and once Targum - in many communities, it is customary on Shabbat to read the Torah portion twice and its Aramaic translation, the Targum, once). The rabbi looked at the Targum of the passage Chida had indicated and saw: הריציכון יהון אסירין, and immediately understood that charitzei (wheels of cheese) asurim (are forbidden). He ordered the merchant arrested. An investigation was carried out, and the merchant confessed how he had obtained the "approval" from Rabbeinu Chida. The rabbi of the city then stood up and proclaimed: "Blessed is the Creator, who has given a portion of His wisdom to those who fear Him." May the merit of the tzadik protect our people! (Rabbi Yisrael Spector, "Gates of the East", Tzadikim website)   Segulot and Prayers of Rabbeinu Chida   1. For a safe journey. On his silver-covered cane, called the "makel drachim", was inscribed: יִרְעַ֤ם הַיָּם֙ וּמְלוֹא֔וֹ יַעֲלֹ֥ץ הַשָּׂדֶ֖ה וְכָל־אֲשֶׁר־בּֽוֹ "Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and all that is in it" (1 Divrei HaYamim 16:32) - this is Rabbeinu Chida's segula for a safe journey. This cane was once stolen, but was later returned.   2. Rabbeinu Chida's segula for burns - a verse from Birkat Kohanim - "Yevarechecha Ad-nai veYishmerecha" - 3 times - "Ya'er Ad-nai Panav Elecha veChunecha" - 3 times - "Yisa Ad-nai Panav Elecha veYasem Lecha Shalom" - 3 times   Tehillim 119 and Shir HaMa'alot according to Rabbeinu Chida https://silatehilim.com/теилим-119-и-шир-а-маалот-по-рабейну-хида   Rabbeinu Chida's prayer against ayin hara, in Aramaic https://silatehilim.com/молитва-рабейну-хида-от-аин-ара-на-арам/   Reading Tehillim 119 by the letters of one's name - a segula of Rabbeinu Chida https://silatehilim.com/чтение-теилим-по-рабейну-хида/   Tehillim 4 for Parnassa according to Rabbeinu Chida, at Ayelet HaShachar https://silatehilim.com/теилим-4-по-рабейну-хида/   The "Pidyon Nefesh" (soul redemption) order according to Rabbeinu Chida https://silatehilim.com/седер-пидьйон-нефеш-выкупа-души-по-р/   Rabbeinu Chida's prayer for peace https://silatehilim.com/молитва-о-мире-рабейну-хида/