Known as: The Rashash 248th yahrtzeit: 10 Shevat
Buried: Har Hazeisim, Yerushalayim
The Rashash was born in Yemen. Later, he moved to Eretz Yisrael, where he became Rosh Yeshiva in Yeshivas Beit Keil in the old city of Yerushalyim. He took the lofty teachings of the Arizal and elaborated on them, eventually turning them into a “Siddur Kavanos,” a siddur with the Kabbalistic intentions based on the teachings of the Arizal. In 1948, the Arabs took over the old city of Jerusalem and came to Har Hazeisim and opened up many graves. There were some Yidden there who saw them open the Rashash’s grave and testified that even though he had died 170 years earlier, his body was still fully whole!
A STORY
The Rashash was a young man when he moved from Yemen to Eretz Yisroel. Although he was very young, he was already a great talmid chacham and mekubal. He came to the great yeshiva for learning Kabbalah called Beit Keil in the old city of Jerusalem. He decided to disguise himself as a simple young man, and became the shamesh of the yeshiva. He would sweep the floors, put away the seforim etc.
While doing his job, he would listen in on the talk of the great Mekubalim, and whenever he would hear them posing a question and not finding the answer, he would write a little note with the answer. When no one was looking, he would put it in their sefer. They were sure that these notes were coming from Heaven, until one day the Rosh Yeshiva decided to hide in the yeshiva and see where these notes were coming from.
Lo and behold, he saw the shamash tiptoe into the shul, sit down at the table, and swiftly write a note, then stick it into the sefer. The Rosh Yeshiva was astounded!
The next day, the Rosh Yeshiva got up in front of the whole yeshiva and called out, “From now on, I am no longer the Rosh Yeshivah; the shamash will be the Rosh Yeshiva, and I will be his student.” So it became that the holy Rashash became the Rosh Yeshiva!
FUN FACT
The Arizal was sitting with his talmidim before he passed away. He was a young man, just 36 years old, and his talmidim cried out, “Rebbe! How can you leave us? We still have so much more to learn from you!” The holy Arizal looked at them and said, “If you will be worthy, I will come back to this world a second time!”
The Tzadikim taught us that the holy Rashash had the neshama of the Arizal, and that is what the Arizal was referring to when he said he would come back again…
A Vort from the Rashash
The passuk says אלית למרום שבית שבי You went up to the heights, having taken captives. The gemara says that this hints to Moshe Rabbeinu, when he went up to Shamayim to get the Torah from Hashem. The Tzadikim teach us that there is also a remez (hint) to the three tzadikim that brought the teachings of Kabbalah to the world. The word שב”י is an acronym for each of the three great teachers of Kabbalah:
רבי יצחק בן שלמה
,רבי שמעון בר יוחאי
רבי שלום בן יצחק
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 68.