Rabbi Abraham Azulai and The Sultan's Sword Rabbi Azulai and his family are part of the rich history of the thriving Jewish community in Hebron.

Rabbi Abraham Azulai and The Sultan's Sword

Rabbi Azulai and his family are part of the rich history of the thriving Jewish community in Hebron.

16.12.15, 19:04

(Photo: The CHIDA, Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai , great grandson of Rabbi Abraham Azulai)

 

Abraham ben Mordecai Azulai (1570 - 1643) was a Kabbalistic author and commentator born in Fez, Morocco. In 1599 he moved to the Land of Israel and lived in Hebron.  There he wrote a commentary on the Zohar under the title Kiryat Arba.

 

The plague of 1619 drove him from his new home and he found refuge in the thriving Jewish community of Gaza. There we wrote his seminal Kabalistic work Chesed Le'Avraham. It was published after the author's death by Meshullam Zalman ben Abraham Berak of Gorice, in Amsterdam in 1685.

 

The work is a treatise with an introduction, and is divided into seven "fountains" each one being subdivided into a number of "streams." A excerpt of the work Chesed Le'Avraham, taken from the fifth fountain, twenty-fourth stream, p. 57d, of the Amsterdam edition reads as follows:

 

On the mystery of Gilgul (reincarnation) and its details: Know that God will not subject the soul of the wicked to more than three migrations; for it is written, "Lo, all these things doth God work twice, yea thrice, with a man" (Job xxxiii. 29). Which means, He makes him appear twice and thrice in a human incarnation; but the fourth time he is incarnated as a clean animal. And when a man offers a sacrifice, God will, by miraculous intervention, make him select an animal that is an incarnation of a human being. Then will the sacrifice be doubly profitable: to the one that offers it and to the soul imprisoned in the brute. For with the smoke of the sacrifice the soul ascends heavenward and attains its original purity. Thus is explained the mystery involved in the words, "O Lord, thou preservest man and beast" (Psalms xxxvi.7 [R. V. 6]).

 

(Title page of Chesed Le'avraham by Rabbi Abraham Azulai, published in Vilna, 1877)

 

Rabbi Azulai died in Hebron on November 6, 1643.

 

One of the manuscripts that he left to his descendant, Hayyim Joseph David has also been published. It is a Kabalistic commentary on the Bible, Ba'ale Berit Abraham (Abraham's Confederates; see Gen. xiv.13), Vilna, 1873.
 

The CHIDA

 

His great-great-grandson was Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai (1724 -1806), better known as the CHIDA, who was a prolific writer and world traveler. The CHIDA made it his mission to raise money for the beleaguered Jewish community of Hebron. At that time, the community, as well as others in Israel, suffered the brutal and constant privation of Arab and Turkish landlords and warlords who demanded exorbitant sums of money in the form of arbitrary and draconian taxes. Moreover, money and work in that part of the world were very hard to come by. Without the missions of people like the CHIDA, the very physical survival of these communities came into question. In his journals, he described numerous instances of miraculous survival, among them, close scrapes with the Russian Navy.

 

(Rabbi Abraham ben Mordecai Azulai's grave in the old cemetery in Hebron, Israel. Credit:  אורלילי / Wiki Commons)

 

The Sultan's Sword and the Cave of Machpela

 

One popular tale about Rabbi Abraham Azulai is that of the Sultan's sword.

 

The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire made a journey from his seat of government in far off Turkey to places of importance in his domains. He made his way to the Cave of the Machpela in Hebron. Adorned in the traditional ruling garb, the Sultan's gold sword, studded with diamonds and precious stones hung at his side. The Sultan wondered from room to room, finally entering the huge hall named after the Patriarch Isaac.

 

The center of attraction in the Isaac Hall is a small circular hole in the floor, near the wall shared by the smaller Abraham Hall. The hole is perhaps the most sacred spot in the entire illustrious structure above the burial caves of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, for it leads down into the caves themselves. Pilgrims from all over the world journey for weeks and months, only to have the opportunity to stand by this small dark circular opening, leading into the cave, which according to tradition, was excavated by Adam, the first man.

 

The Sultan leaned over the revered aperture, peering down into it. As he bent over, his precious sword fell from his side, down into the cavity in the ground. Hearing the clang of metal hitting the ground, the Sultan realized that his sword lay in the caves underneath. The Sultan called the officer of the guard and ordered him to lower a soldier through the hole into the caves below, to retrieve his sword.

 

Quick to respond to the Sultan’s order, the officer selected a soldier nearby. Another soldier wrapped a rope around his waist and lowered the soldier into the underground cavern. No sooner had they done so when, without warning, piercing screams penetrated from inside the hole below. Quickly they pulled up the soldier but he was dead. The Sultan ordered that another soldier be lowered into the caves. So it was, and his fate was precisely as was his predecessor.

 

The Sultan continued to send soldiers into the caves until it became apparent that all who enter the caves do not exit alive. The Sultan turned to his hosts and exclaimed, "Who will return to me my sword?" The Arabs, looking at one another, answered without hesitating. "Why not send down a Jew? If he dies, none of us would care, and if not, you will have your precious saber back". So the Jews were ordered, on pain of death, to supply a volunteer to be lowered into the caves to return the Sultan's sword to him.

 

The Jews Hebron had heard what happened to the Sultan's soldiers. How could they send one of their own to his death? They prayed and fasted, hoping to avert the decree. Realizing that they had no choice, they looked one to the other. Who would dare to enter the sacred Caves of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs? The elderly rabbi of the community, Rabbi Abraham Azuli, solved the dilemma. "I will enter the Holy Caves. Have no fear". And so it was. After praying and pleading before the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Rabbi Abraham Azuli immersed himself in the mikve and dressed in white garments, the traditional dress of the dead. He set forth to the Cave of the Machpela.

 

With a rope tied around his waist, Rabbi Azuli was lowered into the cave. When his feet hit the ground, Rabbi Azuli looked around him and found, standing by his side, three bearded men. "We are your patriarchs", they told him, "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob". Rabbi Azuli, was dumbfounded. Finally he said to them, "Why should I leave here and go back above. I am elderly, and here I have found my Forefathers. I desire only to stay here with you."

 

The Patriarchs insisted, "You must return the sword to the Sultan. If not, the entire Jewish community of Hebron is liable to be wiped out. But have no fear. In another seven days you will return here, to be with us."

 

So the saintly Rabbi returned to the Isaac Hall, above the cave of the Patriarchs, and with him, the Sultan's sword. The Sultan was pleased. Upon seeing their beloved Rabbi return alive, the Jews of Hebron declared the day a holiday. Rabbi Abraham Azuli spent the next week with his students, teaching them all he knew, all the esoteric teachings of Torah. Day and night he learned with them, instructing them, imparting to them all that he knew.

 

Seven days after being lowered into the Cave of the Machpela, Rabbi Abraham Azuli, returned his soul to his Maker, dying peacefully in his home. He was brought to rest in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron, overlooking the final resting place of his beloved Forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

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