Thursday, January 19, 2017

Sponsor the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh shiuron leil shishi in Eretz Yisrael!

Sponsor the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh shiuron leil shishi in Eretz Yisrael!

As we have been publicizing, many Tzaddikim teach that learning the sefer Ohr
HaChaim HaKodosh is a segula for parnossa, Emunas Hashem, Yiras Shomayim, refua sheleima, yeshuos and zera shel kayoma. If you would like to sponsor a shiur in Eretz Yisrael, please contact Rabbi Tal Zwecker at tal.zwecker@gmail.com for further details, and I can help arrange this for you.

"The gates of heaven opened up and I saw G-dly visions, the Creator of the four corners of the earth, and I gazed and meditated upon that which I had permission to, and began to explain at the beginning of Hashem's holy words" Ohr HaChaim, Bereishis

Praises For The Holy Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh

Rav Shlomo Gestetner, the Rav of the Gush Shmonim neighborhood in Yerushalayim, related the following story, which he heard firsthand from the yungerman who told it about himself:

A Talmid Chochom living in Yerushalayim in the year tov shin nun ches had a son who lost his sight and became blind. The doctors could find no antidote or treatment to help him recover his failing vision, and his eyesight was lost.

The father of the yungerman went to the tziun of the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh on Har HaZeisim and davened there for a yeshua, taking upon himself to study and learn the sefer Ohr HaChaim. Not long afterward, his son's vision returned and he was healed with no medical intervention!

After some time he heard of another yungerman who suffered from diabetes and was stricken with total blindness as a result! The Talmid Chochom hastened to the house of the poor yungerman and urged him to visit the tziun of the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh, to daven there and ask that his eyesight be restored so that he could take upon himself to learn the sefer Ohr HaChaim each week on the Parsha. At first, the yungerman was despondent and did not take this piece of advice seriously. Eventually, after constant prodding, he agreed and they set off together to Har HaZeisim to the tziun of the Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh. There he prayed and cried from his heart that he merit a restoration of his vision, so that he could see and study the holy sefer Ohr HaChaim.

Upon arriving home, he was given a volume of the Ohr HaChaim. He opened it and was dumbfounded and amazed when he could see something faintly, as if in a fog! Where total darkness had prevailed, he now began to regain his vision little by little. The more he studied, the more his vision returned each day, the holy letters becoming clearer and more sharply defined, until he was able to see again normally just like everyone else. Today he sees completely normally, overjoyed with the gift of the light of life – the Ohr HaChaim.

Rav Meizlish, who recorded this story, adds: How true are the words of the sages of Venetzia who wrote in their haskoma that "whoever tastes of the honey of this sefer, his eyes shall shine and be enlightened, for just as it is named, it is the Ohr HaChaim – the light of life and all light dwells therein." (Shivchei Ohr HaChaim p. 22)

The Holy Lights Of The Ohr Hachaim

"And she named him Moshe...because I drew him from the water" (2:10).


The Ohr HaChaim HaKodosh points out that in most cases in the Chumash where the Avos are given names, the reason for the name always precedes the actual naming. For example, in Bereishis 21:6 we learn that Yitzchok is given his name because of laughter, and only afterward is he named. Similarly, in Bereishis 25:26, the Torah tells us that Yaakov was holding onto Esov's heel, and that is why is called Yaakov. The same scenario repeats itself in the case of the Shevotim, first regarding Reuven (29:32) and then Shimon (29:33) where the reason for the name is given first. The exception to the rule is Moshe Rabbeinu, whose naming precedes the explanation for it.

The Ohr HaChaim explains that perhaps because the Imohos, our holy matriarchs, were prophetesses and their Ruach HaKodesh revealed to them what they should name their offspring, they differed in this way from Bas Paro. Whereas they were able to discern the deep, spiritual essence of their children, they named them based on what they understood about their souls, whereas in contrast, Bas Paro could not understand Moshe's depth and what his name signified in relation to the great stature of his neshoma. In reality Moshe's name is exceedingly deep and great and holds many wonders, as is explained in the Zohar (III p. 276) and Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkun 69). Hashem is the One Who brings down names into this world and placed Moshe's name into her mouth. The reason she gave later for having drawn him from the water was only her mundane explanation, for she did not really know the true deeper divine reason for Moshe's name.

"And she opened [the basket] and she saw the yeled (baby) and behold a naar (young child) was crying, and she had mercy on him and said, 'This is one of the Jewish children.' (2:6)

Rav Moshe Franco, a talmid of the Ohr HaChaim in Livorno, records in Meor HaChaim the following teaching from the Ohr HaChaim on this pasuk:
Chazal say (Bova Metzia 59a) that the gates of tears were never locked. Whenever a person cries, from Heaven they have mercy on him. Asks the Ohr HaChaim: Why does the pasuk switch from yeled to naar? Shouldn't the pasuk should have said yeled, as it does in the beginning of the pasuk? But this pasuk hints at us all; when it says a young child – naar – it means us. Naar is Am Yisrael, as Hoshea says (11:1), "Yisrael is a young child and I love him."
And when we, Klal Yisrael, daven, cry and shed tears, then Hashem has mercy on us all from Heaven. In addition, if you daven, cry and shed tears, this is a siman (proof) that he is "one of  the Jewish children".