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Parshat Yitro 2018

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

בס"ד

לשכנו תדרשו

Inviting the Holy Presence in Our Holy Land

‘And I Shall take You on the Wings of Eagles and Bring You to Me’

‘Have compassion upon me... and aid me and allow me to speedily go to and arrive in the Holy Land, which is the source of our holiness, as You know that all of our holiness and purity and all our Judaism is dependent on the Land of Israel...’ (Likutei Tfilot I 20) Indeed, today - with the help of air-flight - it is easy to ‘speedily go to and arrive in the Holy Land’, befitting our title quote ‘And I Shall take You on the Wings of Eagles and Bring You to Me’. ‘To Me’ can refer to the place of HaShem’s Holy Presence: the Holy Land. Some of those who moved to Israel in the past century and who were not familiar with airplanes, would describe the planes that took them as ‘giant birds/eagles.’

Just as, physically speaking, what was once seen as a miracle (such as air-flight), is seen today as commonplace; so too, spiritually speaking, what was once seen as a high and lofty level will be considered simple and commonplace. This was the wish of Moshe Rabeinu who said, “If only all HaShem's people were prophets, that HaShem would bestow His spirit upon them!" Indeed, in this parsha, the People of Israel are all raised to the lofty level of prophecy to hear the first two commandments of the ten commandments directly from HaShem. One of the books that makes us work and aspire for lofty spiritual levels is the ‘Reshit Hochma’, compiled by Hebron’s Torah giant and saintly kabbalist, Rabbi Eliyahu Di Vidash zt”l.

 Rabbi Eliyahu Di Vidash was born in Tzefat to Rabbi Moshe Di Vidash. He was a disciple of the Ramak (R. Moshe Kordevaro, author of ‘Pardes Rimonim’, Tomer Devora, ond other works) and when the Ramak passed away, his writings were passed on to Rabbi Eliyahu Di Vidash. He also learned Torah from the Arizal and Rabbi Avraham HaLevi Baruch Mograbi. According to the Arizal, he and the Ramak were reincarnated souls (gilgulim) of Benayahu ben Yohayada, the prophet Zecharyah, and of the Tannaic masters Shemaya and Avtalyon. The Arizal also subscribed special kabbalistic meditations (yihudim) for Rabbi Eliyahu Di Vidash, which can be found in Shaar Ruah HaKodesh.  Rabbi Eliyahu Di Vidash was part of the group of the Ramak and Rabbi Shlomo Elkabetz, who used to go into seclusion in the mountains around Tzefat - a practice called ‘hitbodedut’.

After the spiritual and physical conditions of Tzefat declined, he moved to Hebron and in 1566 he was appointed there as the Chief Rabbi of Hebron. In 1575, he completed his book "Reshit Hokhmah". The book deals with the various aspects of human life according to the Kabbalistic meaning and way of life. This work is largely based on the Zohar, but reflects a wide range of traditional sources. The book has become highly influential in all streams of Judaism and has been published in numerous editions, an abridged version and has also been translated into Yiddish. Great Kabbalists wrote that Rabbi Eliyahu Di Vidash did not only write all these sources in his book, but that he actually kept up the lofty practices mentioned in his book… He is buried in the ancient cemetery in Hebron.

Real Stories from the Holy Land: ‘I once advertised to find a person to work in telemarketing. On the ad, I wrote my phone number without my name. It ‘turns out’ that out of thousands of people who could have seen the ad, only two people called me. One of them was the wife of my friend who sits next to me in my kollel. After checking her credentials, I decided to hire her. Just a few days later, I needed to talk with my daughter who was in class by calling her teacher, but I was told that that day there was a substitute, so I called the number of the substitute. It ‘turns out’ that the substitute was no other than the wife of my aforementioned friend.’

Sources: Wikipedia and WikiYeshiva  on  Rabbi Eliyahu Di Vidash