Rabbi Mordechai Tzemach Eliyahu was born on the 21st of Adar I, 5689 (1929), to Rabbi Salman Eliyahu, a Kabbalist and disciple of the illustrious Rabbi Yosef Chaim, known as the Ben Ish Chai from Bagdad, and to Mazal, the sister of Rabbi Yehuda Tzedakah and granddaughter of the Ben Ish Chai's sister. From childhood, he distinguished himself through his talents and diligence in Torah study despite great poverty. He studied under Rabbi Ezra Attiah at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem and under Rabbi Tzedakah Chutzin. When he was about 20, he was counted among the members of Brit HaKanaim (Covenant of the Zealots), an underground movement whose goal was to establish a halachic state and compel the public to observe mitzvot (although years later, he admitted that, "this path is not suitable for our generation"). At the beginning of 5720 (1960), he was appointed as the youngest dayan (rabbinical judge) in the Land of Israel, at the rabbinical court in Be'er Sheva. In that same year, the bones of the esteemed 18th century intellectual leader, Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai (the Chida) were brought from Italy to Israel, and Rabbi Eliyahu handled his wondrous burial at Har HaMenuchot. After four years, he moved to the regional court in Jerusalem, and in 5731 (1971) was appointed as a member of the Great Rabbinical Court. On the 4th of Nissan 5743 (1983), he was crowned as the Rishon LeZion and Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel alongside the Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Elkanah Kahana Shapira. Even after completing his tenure as Chief Rabbi, he remained a leader to many. He was known as a Kabbalist and miracle worker, served as head of the Darchei Hora'ah kollel in Jerusalem, and had over 60 emissaries scattered across various countries. After a period of about two years of declining health, the tzaddik departed this world on the 25th of Sivan 5770 (2010) and was buried in the Chida's Mausoleum, the final resting place for the remains he had miraculously buried there fifty years earlier.
Rabbi Ezra Barnea, cantor of the Heichal Yaakov synagogue, related: Every patient has a treatment file containing all the medications received during treatment, to track the disease’s progression and healing. But in my file, there is a special medicine not usually found in patient files.
First, I should relate that for a long period I was under medical treatment and monitoring due to abdominal pains that persisted for a long time. Once a month, I would come for examinations at the hospital, where they gave me strong medications that didn’t always help. At the beginning of Elul, a few days before Rabbi Eliyahu was hospitalized for the second time, the rabbi blessed me with a special blessing and said to me: "That’s it, there is nothing wrong with you."
When I arrived at the clinic after three weeks, the rabbi was already hospitalized. The doctor asked me: "How do you feel?" I answered: "Very good, I've been without pain for three weeks."
The doctor continued and asked: "How did the pain stop?"
I answered him with a question: "Do you know Rabbi Eliyahu?"
"Certainly, I treat him!" the doctor replied. I told him that I received a blessing from the rabbi and since then I feel good. The doctor told me to come back in another month, and to immediately stop taking the medications that were poisoning me.
I returned a month later, and again the doctor asked me how I was feeling, and I answered that I felt very well. He said that if so, he was transferring me to another doctor who would follow up. The two spoke about the tests that had been conducted on me and about the findings. The new doctor opened my file and read it from the beginning. When he reached the last page, he smiled broadly. I asked him what the smile was about, and he answered me: "It says here that the pain stopped after Rabbi Eliyahu's blessing."
Afterwards he told me to come for a checkup in another three months. When I came after three months for the checkup, again I had nothing wrong. The doctor said to me: "You don't need to come for checkups anymore. And if, God forbid, the pain returns, you already know to whom to turn….”
(Avihem shel Yisrael, Vol. 5)
It sometimes seems that doctors and tzaddikim live in parallel worlds that never meet. Doctors live in a world of nature, medicine, causes and effects, while tzaddikim live in a world of miracles and wonder, of Divine Providence, and of spiritual remedies. What happens when the worlds meet?
Sometimes there is a tectonic shock, a shattering of the previous beliefs of people who believe only in natural process. Sometimes the reticence comes from the tzaddikim, who do not always want the miracle to be revealed through the veil of concealment they have wrapped around themselves. But in stories like ours, what stands out is the ease and delight both of the tzaddik on one hand, and of the doctors on the other. The rabbi utters half a sentence and eliminates the illness, and the doctors who have already come to know him smile and acknowledge with joy that he knows more than we do about the way this world works….
This is the Ba’al Shem Tov!
The holy Ba’al Shem Tov also loved this path. It is told of him that when he had just started to reveal himself before people, he did not have many chasidim. Because his followers were so few in number, they were forced to marry their daughters even to individuals who opposed the Ba’al Shem Tov.
One of the Ba’al Shem Tov's chasidim was very distressed about this, since his son-in-law absolutely refused to travel to the rebbe. With a heavy heart, he went to the Ba’al Shem Tov and related his distress. The Ba’al Shem Tov calmed the chasid and promised him that he would come to visit his city, and thus the son-in-law would be able to meet him. When the Ba’al Shem Tov arrived at that town, he called for the young man, who reluctantly agreed to enter the wagon with the Ba’al Shem Tov.
They began to travel down the street, and the Ba’al Shem Tov asked the young man: "Do you know what a rebbe is?"
It was a bright summer day, and the Ba’al Shem Tov said: “A rebbe is one who, if he takes out his handkerchief from his pocket and says it will rain, immediately it starts raining.” As he spoke these words, the Ba’al Shem Tov took out his handkerchief and immediately it rained.
Afterwards he said to the young man: “Do you know what a rebbe is? One who, if he says with the handkerchief that the rain should stop, the rain immediately stops.” The Ba’al Shem Tov did just that and the rain stopped. Afterwards he asked the young man again, “Do you know what a rebbe is? If he says it should rain on the right side of the wagon, it rains on the right side,” and so he did with the handkerchief. Afterwards he said the same thing for the left side and it rained on the right and on the left, while in between, in front of them, the road remained dry. The revealed miracle affected the groom, who subsequently became a chasid.
It is told that when the Ba’al Shem Tov's attendant told this to the Alter Rebbe, the rebbe was amazed and said: This is the Ba’al Shem Tov!
Why was the Alter Rebbe so amazed? What does this miracle reveal about the essence of the Ba’al Shem Tov? The answer lies in the sense of playfulness. In every miracle of a tzaddik we see the disruption of the natural order, but here the Ba’al Shem Tov plays with the world without any real necessity, only to show the young man and the world “Who is the master of the house?” Of course, one can laugh at someone out of contempt, but one can also laugh with them out of joy and amusement, for the pleasure of all involved in the jest.
When the Ba’al Shem Tov laughs at nature, nature smiles back at him. This is the Ba’al Shem Tov, and this was the same kind of power that Rabbi Eliyahu also revealed when he caused the medical professionals to laugh at their natural-process work.
