Rabbi Avraham Dov of Ovruch - "Bat Ayin"

The "Bat Ayin" arrived at the port of Haifa in Eretz Yisrael on Rosh Chodesh Elul. He was unsure where he wanted to live and decided to go to Yerushalayim.

The residents of Tzfat invited the great Rebbe to stay with them, and he accepted the invitation, but warned that after Simchat Torah he would go to Yerushalayim.

Later he changed his decision. The reason was a conversation between a woman and her son.

On Hoshana Rabbah, the "Bat Ayin" overheard a woman telling her son: "Yerachmiel! Bring the rugs in from the roof. Tomorrow the Jews will pray for rain and their prayers will surely be answered. It will rain heavily and the rugs will get wet."

Hearing this, the Bat Ayin decided to remain in Tzfat. He said he wanted to remain among Jews who believed so strongly in the power of prayer.

When the "Bat Ayin" lived in Ovruch, he often met with a shaliach from Eretz Yisrael who collected money for the Jews of Eretz Yisrael. The shaliach often spoke to him about the beauty of Eretz Yisrael, about the holiness that dwells there, and the mekomot kedoshim, the holy places. He would say: "What can I say? The stones of Eretz Yisrael are like diamonds."

These conversations made a huge impression on the "Bat Ayin" and inspired him to move to Eretz Yisrael. One day that shaliach came to Tzfat, and the "Bat Ayin" said to him: "I am looking for diamonds, but I still haven't found them." The shaliach answered: "One who has pure eyes can see them."

The "Bat Ayin" took these words to heart. He very much wanted to sense the holiness of Eretz Yisrael as much as possible. He shut himself in a room for several days and let no one in.

He devoted himself to the service of Ha-Shem until he reached a level of understanding where even the stones of Eretz Yisrael were like diamonds.

He came out of the room and held a meal with his Chasidim to mark this achievement.

Around this time he wrote a letter to Rebbe Mordechai of Chernobyl: "During the first three years of my stay in Eretz Yisrael, I felt nothing, and I regretted having moved. These were the three years of orlah (the first three years after planting a fruit tree, when it is forbidden to eat its fruit).

But today I felt holiness in the Keter, the Crown. Now I regret not having moved here sooner."

The "Bat Ayin" almost never took part in funerals, but once, when a funeral procession passed by his house, he went outside and accompanied the deceased to the grave. Everyone wondered why he had done so. The deceased was an ordinary G-d-fearing Jew, and no one thought he was anyone special. Soon the mystery was revealed.

In those days, the deceased was immersed in the Arizal's mikveh before burial. When the body was brought to the mikveh, the members of the burial society saw that his legs were black. They asked the widow what had happened, and she told them the following story.

In his youth he had worked as a merchant outside Eretz Yisrael, and he faced many temptations. At one point he was about to marry a non-Jewish woman.

In the wedding hall, his heart filled with fear of Heaven. To the astonishment of all the guests, he jumped into a vat full of burning coals that was heating the room. The non-Jews decided the groom had gone mad, and threw him out of the hall. In this way he saved himself from sin. His legs remained black from the burns for the rest of his life.

The "Bat Ayin" said that he had seen a pillar of fire rising from the coffin, which is why he joined the procession.

The Gemara (Ketubot 17) says that in every generation this honor is given only to one or two tzadikim. The deceased merit such an honor for mesirut nefesh, an act of self-sacrifice.

Anavah - Humility

When the "Bat Ayin" was on his way to Eretz Yisrael, many Chasidim accompanied him to the port in Odessa.

The Rebbe had already boarded the ship, and the devoted Chasidim asked: "What can we do to feel connected to the Rebbe?" The "Bat Ayin" answered: "Ha-Shem obligates us to feel connected to Him at all times. The Sages ask: 'How can a person cleave to Ha-Shem?' Instead, we must cleave to the way He manifests Himself in this world. Just as Ha-Shem is merciful, so must we be merciful...' If you strive to walk in the ways of Ha-Shem, you will be bound to Him.

In the same way, if you cultivate in yourselves the character traits that I have cultivated in myself since my youth, we will be connected to one another. Even from a distance we will be bound to each other as if standing face to face. I cultivated in myself three main traits: to be very careful not to speak lashon hara, never to lie, and to distance myself from arrogance. If you take this upon yourselves, we will remain connected to one another despite the great distance."

The holy book "Bat Ayin" teaches about these three traits: care in speech, truthfulness, and humility.

The Tzadik's Grave

The "Bat Ayin" is buried in a cave. To approach his grave, one must bend down low. The righteous say that this demonstrates the humility of the "Bat Ayin". Even to approach his grave, a person must lower himself.

The "Bat Ayin" describes many benefits a person gains through humility.

For example, we wonder how the wicked Bilam merited to see an angel?

The "Bat Ayin" explains that he merited this thanks to his argument with the donkey, which shamed him (see Sanhedrin 105). The shame humbled him, and in this way he was able to see the angel.

The law states that the Chanukah Menorah must stand lower than ten tefachim.

The "Bat Ayin" explains that a person must lower himself, and when he humbles himself in humility, this brings about miracles.

Seudat Hillula - a meal in honor of a tzadik's yahrzeit

Many years ago there lived in Tzfat a Slonimer Chasid named Reb Shlomo Gross. He traded in kerosene, but barely made ends meet. There was never enough food in the house.

On the night of the "Bat Ayin's" yahrzeit, Reb Shlomo prayed at his grave. That night the "Bat Ayin" appeared to him in a dream and said: "I am grateful that you prayed at my

grave, but why did you not hold a meal in my honor?"

In the morning Reb Shlomo Gross gathered ten men, and they held a seudah in honor of the "Bat Ayin".

Reb Shlomo could not afford to pay for the meal himself, but he spread a white tablecloth, and each of the guests brought a little food. At the meal they learned divrei Torah and told stories about the "Bat Ayin".

After the meal, Reb Shlomo bought a lottery ticket and won a large sum of money. He donated part of the money to the Slonimer Yeshiva and asked that a seudah be held every year at the Yeshiva in honor of the "Bat Ayin".

Reb Shlomo Gross stipulated special conditions for the meal. The table must be covered with a white tablecloth, and the divrei Torah and stories about the Bat Ayin must be similar to those told on the day of his deliverance from poverty.

The Zohar HaKadosh says that tzadikim take pleasure when people pray at their graves.

This tradition continues to this day in the Slonimer Yeshivas, and to this day the money for the meal is taken from the money Reb Shlomo Gross won on the "Bat Ayin's" yahrzeit.

Many people hold a meal in honor of the "Bat Ayin" (at least cake and a lechaim), and we know many stories of salvation. Here are a few of them.

One of the great rabbis had a daughter who was divorced and lived in her father's house. For a long time no shidduch could be found for her. On the "Bat Ayin's" yahrzeit, the rabbi sent several students to Tzfat to pray at the grave of the "Bat Ayin" and hold a meal for the poor. Two weeks later, they celebrated the divorced daughter's engagement.

The following story took place in Eretz Yisrael in 2017.

The tax authority discovered that a certain man had been writing off personal expenses as business expenses. For example, he needed to buy one car for business, and one for himself. On his tax report, he listed both cars as being for business. In the course of the investigation, many similar cases were found. This man remembered the segula of holding a meal in honor of the "Bat Ayin". He vowed that if everything ended well, he would hold a seudat hillula on the "Bat Ayin's" yahrzeit. Immediately after he took this obligation upon himself, the tax inspectors stopped the investigation and said: "This time we'll let you off. But next time, be careful that we don't find anything like this again."

The sister of a forty-year-old bachur prayed in Tzfat at the grave of the "Bat Ayin" on his yahrzeit. She took upon herself that if her older brother got married, she and her entire family would hold a meal in honor of the "Bat Ayin". Thirty days later, on the 22nd of Tevet, her forty-year-old brother celebrated his engagement! The following year, on the 12th of Kislev, they held a large meal in honor of the yahrzeit, just as the sister had promised.

Children

The "Bat Ayin" had no children, so people believe it is a segula to pray at his grave for children. One couple had no children for many years, and after numerous tests the doctors concluded that they would never be able to conceive a child. The husband prayed at the grave of the "Bat Ayin" on his yahrzeit. A year later, on the "Bat Ayin's" yahrzeit, a son was born to them.

One childless couple could not pray at the grave, because the husband was a Kohen. They went to the "Bat Ayin's" Beit Midrash and prayed there. The husband says: "As soon as we began to pray, our hearts opened, and tears and prayers rose to Heaven. I took upon myself that if we had a child, we would repeat the divrei Torah of the 'Bat Ayin' at the Shabbat meal for an entire year." Their prayers were answered. How do we know this story? This man lives in Yerushalayim, and one Shabbat he was at his father-in-law's home in Bnei Brak, this time with his newborn child. He was looking for the book "Bat Ayin" to say a devar Torah, but the book was not to be found in the Beit Midrash. He met Reb Yeshaya Tishler, shlita, and asked him where he could find the book "Bat Ayin". Reb Yeshaya answered: "I have that book at home. Come with me and I'll lend it to you." On the way, Reb Yeshaya asked why he was looking specifically for the "Bat Ayin". The young man told him about his commitment.

Once a Jew came to the Bat Ayin who was about to divorce his wife. When the Rebbe asked him the reason for this decision, he answered that he was acting according to the Torah. For it is written there: "And it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, that he shall write her a bill of divorce."

"And she doesn't appeal to me at all," the Jew explained.

"The fact is that you see poorly," the Rebbe smiled,

"Take my glasses and look through them." He took off his glasses and handed them to the man. Looking at his wife through these glasses changed everything, and the question of divorce disappeared on its own. And, incidentally, glasses in those days were a very expensive and valuable item.

Stones of the Holy Land

Once, several months after arriving in Eretz Yisrael, on an ordinary weekday, the Bat Ayin held a large meal. During the meal he said that today was, for him personally, a great celebration. For many years he had heard from people arriving from the Land of Israel stories about the holiness of this land - that even ordinary, plain stones sparkled like diamonds.

But when he merited to come up here and settled in Tzfat, he saw nothing of the kind.

Stones were just stones, the same as everywhere else. Then he decided that the fault lay in himself: he was simply too coarse and unable to perceive the holiness. So he began to work on himself: he fasted, and prayed to Ha-Shem for help. And today, thank G-d, he sees that he has changed for the better. He has seen that the stones of the Holy Land shine with a special light and, indeed, sparkle like diamonds.