As we were getting ready to go down to his grave which is
in the ancinet cemetery of Safed a friend pointed out that the day of
his yartzeit is also the very day that Rabbi Yitzchak Luria
(known as the ARIZAL) revealed himself for the first time. In fact the
two incidents are closely related as the RAMAK had revealed to his
students that whoever saw the pillar of fire accompanying his casket to
the grave would be his successor. The ARIZAL who was new to Safed saw
the pillar and directed the gravediggers to the place where the pillar
stopped as the place the RAMAK should be buried. Thus his students
understood he was to succeed the RAMAK. Less than three years later the
ARIZAL passed away and was buried right above the RAMAK.
With all this in mind we went to the grave and for a
few minutes I was able to have one hand on the grave of the ARIZAL and
my other on the grave of the RAMAK. This was so very meaningful to me as
it was the mystic teachings of Judaism which brought me back to Torah
in the first place, and Safed had always played a very important part in
my life and spiritual development. In fact I proposed to my wife Rachel
in Safed.
Then I had a very powerful realization: not only was
this the yartzeit of the RAMAK and I was not commemorating it from afar
but was at his grave AND that it was the very day the holy ARIZAL
revealed himself, but it was in that exact spot that he revealed himself!!!!
I cannot tell you how powerful it was
to experience the holiness that occurs when time and place come together
to create a holy moment of insight and realization.
