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With great effort and perseverance, while sanctifying and purifying himself and abstaining absolutely from the pleasures of the world, the holy tzadik, Chacham Rabbeinu Yaakov Abuchatzeira zt”l, became so immersed in the revealed and hidden aspects of the Torah, that “no secret was hidden from him.” (Daniel 4-6) With great purity and depth, he studied Kabbalah until he was as familiar with the paths of the hidden Torah as he was with the streets of his hometown, Tafilalet, Morocco. He developed many disciples, both his very close students in his renowned yeshivah, as well as the masses who flocked to hear the word of Hashem, receive blessings and advice, and to have their cases judged before him.

The Kohen Gadol wore a meil, a robe that was adorned with golden bells, which rang with a musical tinkle whenever he walked. The Gemara in Erchin discusses how each of the Kohen Gadol’s vestments atoned for a particular sin; the meil atoned for the sin of lashon harah. As Chazal say, the meil, which made a loud kol (sound) should atone for lashon harah, which makes a loud kol. Additionally, the bells were made from pure gold and the word zahav (gold) has threee letters in Hebrew, which hints at the three people who are literally destroyed by evil slander: the speaker, the listener, and the one it is about.

In the early part of the 20^th Century, a young girl stood near her father on the dock of a Polish harbor, a steamer trunk at her feet. Out of her nine siblings, 12-year-old Rose was the child chosen to be sent to the “golden land,” America. Life in Poland was hard, hunger a constant visitor in her home. After much scraping and pinching, her family saved enough for a single one-way ticket to the United States. And Rose, the youngest of the nine, was the lucky one chosen to go.

Following the wonders of Kabalas HaTorah on Har Sinai, HaKadosh Baruch Hu instructed Moshe Rabbeinu to build a sanctuary that will embody, on a highly condensed and intensified scale, the Divine vision of a dwelling for Himself in the physical world. Thus, the portable Mishkan was built in the desert to accompany B’nei Yisrael in their journeys, later achieving a more permanent form in the Beis HaMikdash.

In the holy city of Jerusalem, one of the pillars of the Sephardic Torah community is the famous Porat Yosef Yeshivah, which was founded close to 100 years ago (1914) to preserve Sephardic Jewry and produce outstanding Torah scholars who would perpetuate Sephardic teachings and tradition. A philanthropist from Calcutta, India, Yosef Avraham Shalom, played a major role in the founding of the yeshivah. This Jew from India had a big heart and, after learning of the diseases that were rampant in Jerusalem and its environs, he wished to build a hospital in the Holy Land to see to the people’s physical needs. He wrote a letter to the Gadol HaDor, Chacham Yosef Chayim zt”l of Baghdad, the Ben Ish Chai, and informed him of his plans. The Ben Ish Chai wrote back with the following response: “Open a yeshivah, not a hospital. Although it is important to build a hospital in Yerushalayim, many people will be eager to grab that mitzvah, while very few appreciate the value of Torah study, which is sorely needed.” Avraham Shalom heeded the Ben Ish Chai’s advice and contributed a vast sum of money for the founding of Porat Yosef in the Old City of Jerusalem.

In the mystical city of Tz’fas, close to 500 years ago, lived a righteous man who was known for his kindness, his many good deeds, and his immense wealth, which he used to support the indigent. For the first few years of his marriage, he was not blessed with children, and this allowed him and his wife to pour out their hearts in prayer. In time, the couple was blessed with a son, and their joy knew no bounds. The birth of their child and the upcoming bris milah was the talk of town, and the man wasted no time in requesting the honor of the holy Arizal, Rabbeinu Yitzchak Luria zt”l to serve as sandek.