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

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Inviting the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

“And Yehuda He Sent Forward to Show the Way to Goshen”

“Blessed are You HaShem Who teaches Torah to His People Israel.”

Our Sages teach that even before the descent of Israel to Egypt, Yakov our father appointed Yehuda his son to found a yeshiva for Torah study, even before the Torah was given at Mount Sinai. This teaching fits perfectly with the teaching that all the Patriarchs knew the entire Torah even before it was officially given in the time of the Exodus from Egypt. The founding of a yeshiva by Yehuda is learned from our title quote: “And Yehuda He Sent forward to show the way to Goshen.” This act can be considered one of the more decisive factors in the ability of Israel to settle in the Diaspora. Just as on a physical level, a settlement cannot exist without water, so too Jewish settlement could have not existed without Torah study and spiritual fulfillment. In a similar way, when the People of Israel return to the Land many years later it is the tribe of Yehuda who is summoned to move first and conquer the Land of Israel. Indeed, it was also Otniel ben Kenaz, the Torah luminary of Yehuda and of Hebron, who was the first judge after Yehoshua to establish Torah study on an organized level in the Land of Israel.

One of the Torah luminaries and poskim named Yehuda who also was a trailblazer in Israel’s spiritual and physical return to the Land of Israel in general and to Hebron specifically, was Rabbi Yehuda Bivas zt”l. One of his maternal ancestors, Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, well-known as the Or Hahaim, was also a major spiritual figure, who moved to the Land of Israel and taught significantly about the importance of settling the Land of Israel.

In his youth, R.Y Bivas learned Torah in Gilbralter and then in Livorno. Later in 5591(1831) he became the Rabbi of the Jewish community in Corfu. In 5599 he went on a journey throughout the cities of Europe, where he preached to his fellow Jews to settle the Land of Israel. In the cities he visited he did not stay for more than one day, except for Shabbat. R.Y Bivas may be considered the first of Oriental Jews to preach the return of Jews to the Holy Land, and Rabbi Y. Alkalay continued in his footsteps. In 5611 R.Y Bivas decided to move to the Land of Israel. A few years before R.Y Bivas organized a charity project for the Jewry of Hebron by which ‘property will be bought (in Hebron) in the name of the community Corfu.’ Therefore, R.Y Bivas naturally settled in Hebron. In Hebron he established a yeshiva and also kept his expansive library.  In his yeshiva he studied kabbalah and addressed sermons before the scholars of his beit midrash. However, only two months passed, and while lecturing in his bet midrash, R.Y Bivas died suddenly. It is told that, ‘his death was like a ‘death from the kiss of HaShem’ (said about the righteous) as he was speaking words of Torah and lofty secrets he fainted and passed away.’ His house, library, and synagogue, that were called ‘Yeshivat R. Yehuda bivas’ he dedicated to the Sephardic Kollel of Hebron.  Rabbi Bivas is buried in Hebron’s Ancient Cemetery.

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Real Stories from the Holy Land #247

“After shopping at the supermarket my wife told me to go back to get another item. However, I was already on the bus far away from the supermarket I had just shopped at. Nevertheless, I thought to myself that HaShem must be showing me something in this request, so I decided to go to the supermarket close to my planned destination (not the previous supermarket). I looked for the item my wife asked me about and found it there for about half of the original price.” 

Sources: Sefer Hebron

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