14 Iyar · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai - Tanna
Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai - Tanna
Yahrzeit - 14 Iyar
Burial place - Ein Zeitim
Segula to pray for Parnasa, for Kol Yeshuot.
The Tanna Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai was born in the ancient town of Usha, whose traces have survived on the territory of the kibbutz of the same name, near the modern city of Kiryat Ata.
He received his education from his father, who was a student of Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus.
He then studied in the city of Lod under Rabbi Tarfon, who became so attached to the young man that he called him his son. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah and Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha also contributed to his learning.
He completed his studies as one of the last five students of Rabbi Akiva, together with Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Rabbi Yosi ben Chalafta, and Rabbi Elazar ben Shamua.
After the bloody suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt, by decree of Emperor Hadrian, Jews were forbidden to observe Shabbat and other holidays, to pray to Ha-Shem, to perform circumcision, to don tefillin, or to study Torah. Disobedience was punishable by death. Despite all this, the aforementioned students of Rabbi Akiva managed to receive their blessing and rabbinic semicha from Rabbi Yehuda ben Bava, who paid for it with his life.
Some relief came with the new Caesar - Antoninus Pius. It became possible to revive national foundations, to "restore the authority of the Torah."
This allowed Bar Ilai to gather the sages in his native town of Usha, where he held an assembly at which it was decided to restore the Sanhedrin.
His name is mentioned more than 600 times in the Mishnah, and in practically every tractate of the Talmud more than 3,000 halachic and aggadic sayings of his are cited, of which the most famous are the following:
"Labor is important for everyone, and honors anyone who engages in it";
"Whoever does not teach his son a trade teaches him robbery";
"The Jewish people are like dust and like the stars. When they fall, they fall to the dust, and when they rise, they rise to the stars."
In references to the midrash from the section of the Oral Torah devoted to "Torat Kohanim," he is mentioned not by his own name but as "Chasid," which literally translates as "righteous one."
The Talmud (Nedarim) tells how the wife of the Tanna Bar Ilai bought wool yarn at the market, spun it, wove the cloth, and sewed a cloak, which she and her husband wore in turns.
One day, when all the sages gathered at the home of Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel to observe a fast, it was noticed that Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai was not among them, simply because he had nothing to wear, since his wife had gone to the market wearing that garment.
Ben Gamliel sent someone to him with a cloak as a gift. But Bar Ilai flatly refused to accept it, saying he needed no gifts. A little patience, and he would come. They only had to wait for his wife's return.
"Do not think that I am poor," he said, and lifting the mat on which he sat, he revealed gold dinars covering the floor.
Then, seeing the shock on the messenger's face, he added: "I can afford whatever I wish. But I need nothing more than what is necessary for existence. I am content with what I have."
"And the gold dinars immediately vanished, because Rabbi Yehuda did not want to take them and remained in his poverty, just as before."
He never accepted charity, firmly believing that every person should earn his own living. He held that "the foundation of life is the study of Torah, and a trade is only a means to that end." And when "a trade becomes the main business of life, and the study of Torah becomes secondary, then neither the Torah nor the trade will yield good results."
The tractate "Shabbat" in the Mishnah says that "having washed his hands and feet with hot water, he would put on white garments and sit like an angel of the L-rd."
His closest friend was Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the founder of Kabbalah, one of those who managed to revive the legal activity of the Torah authorities.
And the most famous of his students was Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, the compiler of the Mishnah.
The dates of Bar Ilai's birth and death are unknown (some hold that he passed on 14 Iyar).
It is known only that he was buried in the Upper Galilee, northeast of Tzfat, near the site where the Arab village of Ein Zeitun once stood.
At this mystically strange site, today one can see only a monument in the shape of the letter "ש," placed atop the hill in memory of the soldiers of an armored brigade who fell during the Six-Day War approaching the Golan Heights.
Tradition holds that the ashes of the holy one rest in a cave on a mountain slope, near which grew an olive tree that the faithful took apart piece by piece.
Frequent visitors to his grave were Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz and the Arizal (Ha'Ari HaKadosh). At that time the entrance to the cave was very low, and it was not easy to crawl inside.
Only in the 1980s was the site where Bar Ilai and his son are believed to be buried refurbished, surrounded with trees, and a synagogue built.
It is believed that it is precisely at the grave of Rabbi Bar Ilai that one can pray for an improvement in one's financial situation.
It is customary to travel to Bar Ilai on the night of the second Passover - Pesach Sheni. This tradition was established by the Arizal for holding the hillula of the tzadik.
The ritual begins with everyone circling the tomb 7 times, reciting certain prayers: pesukim from the Torah, Tehillim, and passages from the book "Sefer Charedim" (Book of the Trembling).
On the stones placed near the building, the rules for conducting the hillula are inscribed, indicating how many times one must circle the synagogue and in what order the sacred texts should be recited.
The tradition of the Arizal was revived by Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu - to come to the grave of Bar Ilai to pray and sing praises to Zion, calling on all Jews to relate to it with the same strong love that children feel for their mother, and also to suffer heartfelt pain over the destruction of the Second Temple.
Segulot
This is one of the places that the Arizal visited when he arrived in Israel, and he identified it as the grave of Yehuda bar Ilai.
1. For Parnasa - there is a minhag at the grave of Yehuda bar Ilai - an unusual tree grows there, the Etz HaZayit (olive tree); the segula is to take a small piece of bark from this tree, put it in one's pocket, and recite Tehillim 23 for 21 days - this is a segula for those who struggle to earn a livelihood.
This site was renovated with funds from a wealthy student of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, the American businessman Menachem ben Magiach.
The Story of the Etz HaZayit
The Etz HaZayit tree that grew near the grave nearly disappeared because of people who came and took its bark for parnasa - and it truly helped.
By the late 1980s, nothing remained of the tree but its trunk.
Thirty years later, the researcher Arye Yitzchaki traveled to the grave to learn about this segula and the tree. He was on his way to give a lecture at Bar-Ilan and picked up two Haredi boys from Bnei Brak along the way to help him.
Arye Yitzchaki tells in his lecture that he too traveled to the grave and performed this segula, and read Tehillim 23, and prayed, and the gates of Parnasa opened for him in the merit of Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai.
A few years ago, Dr. Harshefer came to this site - by then nothing remained of the tree, even the trunk had been cut down, but he saw that there was still a living root, carefully dug it up, and took it home to save the tree, planting it at his house. Some time later, the root produced two shoots, and as they grew, so did Dr. Harshefer's parnasa. From a small apartment, he moved to a large house, and he took the tree with him and replanted it in the yard there.
One day, the wife of Rabbi David Amzaner, the caretaker of the grave of Yehuda bar Ilai, came to a lecture given by Dr. Harshefer, and upon learning that two shoots of the Etz HaZayit tree had survived, she asked that one of them be returned to the grave of Yehuda bar Ilai. Thus the tree was revived.
Rabbi Ben Tzion Mutzafi writes in his book that it is good to travel to the grave of Yehuda bar Ilai on Pesach Sheni and light candles.
In the time of the Arizal it was customary to go up from Tzfat to Ein Zeitim on Rosh Chodesh and to the grave of Yehuda bar Ilai to study Kabbalah there.
Rabbi Elazar Azikri, author of Sefer Charedim, relates that Rabbi Yosi Saragosi had a vision of Eliyahu HaNavi at the grave of Yehuda bar Ilai.
And in that same book, Rabbi Elazar Azikri wrote a song that is sung at the grave of Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai on Rosh Chodesh.
The Shlah HaKadosh also wrote that this song from that book was sung at the grave of Rabbi Yehuda bar Ilai.
May the merit of the tzadik protect our people!
(Ruth Samuels, "Pathways Through Jewish History")
Pilgrimage site:
Grave: Yehuda bar Ilai