7 Elul · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim - father of the Ben Ish Chai
Rabbi Eliyahu ben Moshe Chaim - darshan (preacher) - father of the Ben Ish Chai
Yahrzeit - 7 Elul
Resting place - Baghdad
Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim inherited his father's official position as darshan (preacher). He was one of the most distinguished rabbis in the city, and his opinion on halachic matters was sought from Jerusalem all the way to Salonika and Izmir. He decided not to accept any payment from the community for his services. Instead, he devoted a small amount of time to business in order to support his family.
Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim was fully devoted to fulfilling the mitzvot of the Torah in their simplest, most practical sense:
1) He entrusted a friend in the Holy Land with money to purchase land, so that he could fulfill the mitzvot of the Torah relating to agriculture.
2) He bought a young donkey in order to redeem its firstborn.
3) He searched for birds' nests in order to fulfill the mitzvah of Shiluach HaKen (sending away the mother bird).
For many years, Rabbi Eliyahu was childless. One day he received a letter from the renowned leader of Moroccan Jewry, Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzeira (1807-1880), informing him that he would soon be blessed with a son who would illuminate the Jewish world. The blessing was fulfilled in 1833, when his son Yosef Chaim (the Ben Ish Chai) was born. Rabbi Eliyahu later had four more sons and a daughter.
Stories of the Tzadikim
One year, before Chanukah, there was a great shortage of olive oil in Baghdad, and the residents of the city thought that this year the Chanukah candles would have to be lit with sesame oil or wax candles.
Rabbi Eliyahu thought it over and decided to travel to Aram Tzova in Syria to buy and bring back good-quality olive oil. When he arrived and found good, high-quality olive oil, he did not spare his wealth - he bought not only for his own family, but for the entire city. He paid considerable sums for donkeys and camels to transport such a large quantity of barrels of olive oil, and when he arrived back in Baghdad, the whole city was astonished at what he had done, wondering why such extravagance was necessary when sesame oil would have sufficed.
He answered them: "Please listen - although other oils are also kosher for the Chanukah candle, the precise mitzvah is to light the Chanukiah specifically with olive oil." Still, there were some residents who did not want to spend money on expensive olive oil and preferred sesame oil, since halacha permits it. So Rabbi Eliyahu gave them the oil at the lowest possible price - the price of sesame oil - and in doing so won the respect and admiration of all the residents of the city, granting his community the merit of lighting the Chanukah candles with olive oil.
That same night, in a dream, holy tzadikim came to him and told him that a son would be born to him, a light of Israel. And indeed, Rabbi Eliyahu Chaim was blessed with a righteous, holy, and pure son - the Ben Ish Chai (may his merit protect us), who illuminated the eyes of Klal Yisrael through his sermons, his teachings, and his profound books filled with hidden secrets.
May the merit of the tzadik protect Am Yisrael!
(From a lesson by Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Batzri)