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Сила Теилим

25 Kislev · Yahrzeit

Yahrzeit/Hillula of Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Harari Raful

Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Nissim ben Ezra was born in Jerusalem to Simcha and Rabbi Ezra Harari Raful, a member of a family of rabbis from Aleppo, Syria, where they had arrived from Spain after the expulsion. He studied Talmud Torah in the Bucharim neighborhood, and later at the Ohel Moed Yeshiva, which his father founded together with Rabbi Rephael Shlomo Laniado. In 1914 he married Sarah, daughter of Rabbi Yosef Zakai, and together they lived in the Old City of Jerusalem. In 1923, when the Porat Yosef Yeshiva opened, he taught students there. When the yeshiva relocated to the new city in 1948 after the Jordanians took the Jewish Quarter, he became its overseer. He also served as a cantor. He would tell those who came to visit him the gematria of their names and other combinations of the same gematria. He passed away on the 25th of Kislev, 1991, and was buried on Har HaMenuchot. A street in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood of Jerusalem is named after him.   Sipurei Tzadik Chosen from Above A young girl who had a bacterial infection in her eye needed surgery. When her family came to the Rav to ask him to pray for their daughter, Rabbi Avraham took a handkerchief in his hand and murmured various holy verses of the Torah over it. He then told them to place it over her eyes. They followed Rabbi Avraham's exact instructions. He told the parents to let her rest. The next morning she woke up, and she no longer needed the surgery. That day, the joyful parents ran through the streets of Jerusalem, giving thanks to the Almighty and to Rabbi Avraham for their daughter's recovery. Everyone said that the tzadik Rabbi Avraham must have been "chosen from above." The Beard One day, Rabbi Avraham was getting a haircut, and the barber accidentally shaved off one side of his beard. Rabbi Avraham was not angry at all, and said to him gently, "Since you've already shaved one side, you might as well shave the other." He then asked the barber for a towel and went home with the towel over his face. He did not leave the house for many weeks, until his beard grew back.   Eyesight One Friday evening, Rabbi Avraham said to his family: "Why are the clouds so dark today - it's impossible to see anything." His family realized that he had lost his eyesight, and they wanted to call a doctor to examine him. Rabbi Avraham told his family that a doctor was not needed, for it is written that one who has lost his eyesight should look at the cup filled with Kiddush wine, and at the Shabbat candles during Kiddush. Indeed, after he looked at the Shabbat Kiddush and the candles, his eyesight miraculously returned. After Kiddush he asked for the "Sefer Chok Le-Yisrael" and began reading from it, and his eyesight was fully restored. When the family members saw what had happened to Rabbi Avraham, they recognized him as "fearless and pure of heart."