In the holy city of Sfas (Safed) there lived a holy rabbi who was said to know all of the revealed and hidden Torah, all the holy writings, and the Zohar by heart. A wealthy and educated merchant in Sfas owned a large orchard, several fields, and two ancient forests. Now this wealthy merchant had a beautiful he had great difficulty in finding a worthy groom for her. No one was a fine enough scholar. Then it happened that he heard of the holy rabbi, and he was determined that such a learned man would be his son-in-law. With the help of a shadchan (a person who arranges marriages) the betrothal was made.
So it was that the holy rabbi met both his bride and his father-in-law for the first time on the day he was married. Under the chupah (wedding canopy) the holy rabbi took the hand of his bride and said, “And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.” (Hosea 2:19) The love between the holy rabbi and his bride was a deep one, which had been ordained in heaven.
Every day after the morning prayers, the holy rabbi rode a horse into one of the forests, and he was not seen again until the sun was about to set and it was time for the afternoon prayers. What he did in that forest was a mystery. The wealthy merchant saw that the holy rabbi treated his daughter well and that she always appeared to be happy, so he never questioned his ways of his son-in-law.
Now the wealthy merchant hired two Jewish men to serve as the foresters of the two ancient forests he owned. Each had a cabin in one of the forests, and there they watched for those who sought to poach, illegally hunt or cut down the trees. They would walk through the forests as they patrolled for trespassers. One day, one of the foresters saw a horse tied to a tree and when he went closer, he saw the merchant’s son-in-law lowering himself into the dark, putrid insect-infested waters. What kind of mikveh (ritual bath) was this?
The holy rabbi spent a long time in those waters, and when he came out of the water, he dressed, untied the horse, and rode out of the forest. Then the forester came out of hiding and saw, to his amazement, that those waters had turned completely pure. He bent down and drank from them, and the waters were clear and sweet. And he realized that he had witnessed a miracle of one of the hidden saints.
So it was that the forester secretly observed the holy rabbi as he made his way through the forest, and he saw many other kinds of miracles take place. Whatever barren tree he sat beneath soon had blossoms appear on it, and whatever path he walked on had flowers spring up overnight. All of nature welcomed his presence as if he were an angel. He quietly went on his way hidden from the eyes of people, healing whatever was sick or dying with a power that seemed to spring from his very being. The holy rabbi searched for the scattered sparks in that holy forest, so that he could gather them so he could repair the world.
Now that forester was childless, and when he told his wife about the miracles he had witnessed in the forest, and then told her husband that the holy rabbi was a tzaddik nistar (righteous hidden holy man). She begged him to go to the hidden tzaddik and ask for his blessing so they could have a child of their own. One day, when he could not hold himself back any longer, the forester approached the holy rabbi and said, “I know that you are a tzaddik nistar, who hides his ways from the world. There is only one thing I would ask of you, and if you help me, I promise never to reveal your secret. All I ask is that you pray for my wife and me to have a son.” The tzaddik saw that his secret had been discovered, and he blessed the forester, “Ribonno shel Olam, Master of the Universe look down on the sadness of your children, and remember them, and grant them a child.” He then promised the man that within a year he and his wife would be blessed with a baby boy. At the end of the year the forester’s wife gave birth to a healthy son.
The forester was overjoyed at the birth of his son and kept his word and never revealed the secret of the holy rabbi. Then one day his friend forester, who watched over the other ancient forest, came to visit him. This forester’s life had been tragic, for each of his sons had died before reaching the eighth day. He said: “I see that G-d has blessed you and you have had a son. May there be many more blessings. Tell me, was there anything you did to make this possible? Perhaps you can help me so that I can be blessed as well.”
Now the forester had no intention of breaking his promise, but at the same time he wanted to help his friend, the other forester. He thought for some time and answered: “I will help you on one condition—that you not ask any questions but do whatever I tell you to do.” The other forester quickly agreed to these terms, and the first one explained: “What we have to do is to switch places, so that you will patrol my forest, and I will patrol yours. Then everything will be all right.”
So it was that the foresters switched places, and after a while the second forester observed the ways of the holy rabbi, who brought miracles to pass wherever he went. When he saw these miracles, the forester understood why the other had advised him to switch places. One day he slowly approached the tzaddik of the forest and told him of the disaster that had haunted the birth of every one of his sons, and he asked for his blessing, that his future sons would live.
The tzaddik was silent for a long time, and at last he said: “Do you remember that when you were young you went with some friends to swim in the river and to wash in its waters? There was a large tree near the shore of that river, and at the bottom of the trunk, near the roots, there was engraved the image of a hand. And you had the urge to laugh and play around. So you took a ring and placed it on the finger of the hand and said Haray at mekudeshes….Behold you are consecrated to me, the wedding vows.”
The forester grew pale when he heard this, for he himself had forgotten about that foolish thing. He lowered his eyes and admitted that it was true, and the holy rabbi explained: “At that moment an evil spirit that lived in that place was wed to you. And since you married someone else, this evil spirit comes and kills your sons because you betrayed her and didn’t fulfill the wedding vow”
The forester was staggered by these words, and he said: “I remember that day as if it were yesterday. Afterward I was ashamed of what I had done, and I put it out of my mind until now. Please, tell me, what must I do in order to free myself of that evil spirit?”
The holy rabbi told the forester that he had to say a special teffilah (prayer):
“Av haRachaman…Father of Mercy, I have done so much damage in this world through my many indiscretions, sins and wrong-doing from my earliest days until today. I have so abused my mouth, my eyes and ears – at times because of my carelessness, at times intentionally, sometimes through outside pressures and sometimes quite deliberately. Kind, loving and forgiving Master of Compassion: pardon and forgive me for everything. Repair all the damage until not a trace is left. You know that I need your help to make amends for all the wrong I have done.”
The holy rabbi continued, “I will write the get, the bill of divorce, for you, and you must take it to the same place, and put the get into the hand engraved there, and you must say: ‘The holy rabbi commands you to divorce me.’ “
The forester went there, found the place where the hand was engraved, and he did as the holy rabbi told him to do, and at last he was freed of that spirit. And the sons who were born to him after that all thrived.
May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)
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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (Joel 1:3)