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Parshat Toldot
By: Rabbi Moshe Goodman, Kollel Ohr Shlomo, Hebron

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Discovering the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

עקב אשר שמע אברהם בקולי

 'O Eternal, answer me in the merit of our holy Forefathers Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'akov. For the sake of the fathers save the children, so the branches will be like the roots..." (Shelah's prayer)

The merit of our forefathers is not only crucial to us but also to the Patriarchs Yitzhak and Yakov, to whom the merit of the first patriarch, Avraham, was also significant. It is because of 'Avraham's listening to the call of HaShem' that Yitzhak is blessed, as we see in our title quote from this parsha, to inherit the Holy Land. We may also interpret this quote to refer to the merit of Avraham's 'heel' - 'ekev' in listening to HaShem to come to the Holy Land, by which, measure for measure, Yitzhak is promised the Holy Land in this week's parsha.

One of the saintly Kabbalists of Hebron who was both named Avraham, and went in Avraham Avinu's footsteps in how he cherished the Holy Land generally and Hebron specifically, was Rabbi Avraham Azulai, also known after his famous Kabbalistic work, the 'Hesed LeAvraham'.

The 'Hesed LeAvraham' was born in 5330 (1560 CE) in Morocco. At about the age of 30 he set out to settle in the Land of Israel. On the way, he was miraculously saved in a ship-wreck. As a sign of gratitude to HaShem for this miracle the 'Hesed LeAvraham' changed his signature to liken a ship. In 5360 the 'Hesed LeAvraham' arrived in the Holy Land and settled in Hebron. Because of the plagues, then rampant in Hebron, he was forced to move to Jerusalem, and when the plagues began in Jerusalem, he moved to Gaza.

Rabbi Avraham Azulai then made a vow that if he should merit to return to Hebron he would publicize his Torah teachings that he had written throughout the years. Soon after, the 'Hesed LeAvraham' was able to return to Hebron where he lived the rest of his life till he passed away on the 21st (or 24th) of Marheshvan 5404 (1643 CE). This pivotal move of publicizing Torah on the 'Hesed LeAvraham's part, may be given added meaning in light of the attribute of 'Torah of Kindness', i.e publicizing Torah/the Name of God to the masses, which was the attribute of the first 'Avraham', our  Patriarch.

The 'Hesed LeAvraham' studied Kabbalah together with the great Kabbalist Rabbi Shmuel Vital, the son of Rabbi Haim Vital, the Arizal's pupil. Together with the Kabbalist Rabbi Yakov Tzemach the 'Hesed LeAvraham' traveled to R. Haim Vital's tomb in Syria to receive special permission from R. Haim Vital's soul in heaven to dig into his grave and take the Kabbalistic manuscripts he hid with him in his grave. Some of these manuscripts that were unearthed are considered some of the most authentic and accurate teachings of the Arizal.

In his works the 'Hesed LeAvraham' discusses at length the great spiritual value of the Holy Land and its settlement by the Jewish People. These works and also his righteous descendants, one of them being the famous 'Hida', Rabbi Hayim Yosef David Azulai, who also worked from Hebron, leave us with his timeless legacy of kindness and spiritual influence and illumination - the 'Kindness of Avraham.'

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #243

'For numbers of months I have been learning with a hevrusa once a week on the telephone for about 20 minutes with someone from a secular background who would like to come closer to Judaism. I was 'matched' with this man by a specific 'kiruv' organization in Israel, which also checks out from time to time how our 'hevrusa' is going. The last time I heard from this organization was about two months ago. One evening, I finished the call to this hevrusa, and that exact second the organization who matched us just 'happened' to call to 'check up'... (they had no idea when I conduct this hevrusa...)  I.G

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