1490 (5786-41) 14 Tammuz 5786 (June 29, 2026)

"The Light of the Orient"

The famous Sephardic sage, Rabbi Hayyim Ben Attar, earned a nice living through his rare specialty: embroidering clothes, particularly luxurious aristocratic garments woven with gold or silver thread.

Why This Week? The 15th of the Jewish month of Tammuz is the yahrzeit of the Ohr HaChayim Hakadosh.

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The Light of the Orient

The city of Sali, located on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the northwestern end of Morocco, is not large in terms of cities. The Jewish community there, although small in number, has nevertheless left its imprint on Israel's history because of the revered tzadik and teacher, Rabbi Hayyim (1) [Ben Moshe] Ben-Attar, author of the beloved Ohr Ha-Chayim (2 )commentary, who was born there in 5456 (1696) into the Ben-Attar family that emigrated originally from Muslim Spain ("Attar" in Arabic means "perfume" or "perfume merchant").

As a child and later as a youth, he studied Torah with his grandfather, after whom he was named. In the introduction to his book Hafeitz Hashem, he relates: "I studied Torah with my grandfather, who was a great and well known Rav. I grew up on his knees and took in all his wondrous sayings. He was so pious that I would say that he almost never slept even half a night. He finished each night by studying with me and others who, like myself, were his descendants."

As an adult in Sali, Rabbi Hayyim earned a living through his rare specialty, embroidering clothing, particularly luxurious aristocratic garments woven with gold or silver thread. He could have earned much more than a minimum income through his work, except that he always maintained an unusual principle of his: from the moment that he earned enough money to live on for the week, he returned to his studies.

This pattern caused him great trouble, starting when he refused the order of the local Pasha [civil governor] to embroider his daughter's wedding dress and ending with him being thrown into a cage of starving lions, but that's a story in itself for another time (3), and it is only one of the many widespread stories circulating in the Jewish world concerning the deep wisdom and great holiness of Rabbi Hayyim Ben Attar.

While living in his father-in-law's house from the day of his marriage, Rabbi Hayyim did not cease in-depth Torah study, eventually attaining an exalted status among the many scholars in Morocco and eventually around the world. After a few years, he starting a yeshiva in his home, where he taught Torah publicly without accepting any salary for it, for from his youth he had undertaken to study and teach Torah for the sake of the Giver of the Torah.

In 1732, while still living in Sali, his book Hafeitz Hashem (a commentary on the Talmud) was printed in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, persecutions forced him to leave the city of his birth, and he moved to Meknes and subsequently to Fez, where he studied for several years with certain students and friends.

His home there was wide open to everyone, and even more so to Torah scholars. Every week he would purchase a calf for Shabbat, slaughter it, and distribute the meat to Talmidei Chachamim [devoted students of Torah at a high level] so that they could have proper food to eat in honor of Shabbat.

One night, the Ohr HaChayim dreamed that he was condemned into exile for an entire year because one time in his home he did not defend the honor of a particular Talmid Chacham against the insults of a certain rich man. He accepted the decree.

The following week, he left his home and undertook a year of veritable exile. He didn't sleep more than one night in the same place, leaving the next morning to continue his exile. He was often assailed by hunger, yet accepted this trial as a necessary stage in his tshuvah [repentance and 'soul-cleaning']. (4)

Noticing that he was becoming overwhelmed by troubles, our teacher decided that the moment had come to ascend to the Holy Land and take up residence in the Holy City of Jerusalem. As he wrote in the introduction to his book Hafeitz Hashem:

"G-d ['who is good and does good'] cleared my mind, and I understood that this trial was only meant to encourage me to leave for the place that I had dreamed of, the place of the Shechinah [the Presence of G-d as manifested in this lower realm of existence], the exalted city that is precious to the Master of the world, sovereign in the world above and in the world below.

"…I armed myself with all my courage and faced great dangers by traveling in deserted regions, all this to arrive at the country that I had yearned for, that pure spot on earth, Eretz Israel. As for all the countries of the peoples of the world, their land - even the air that they breathe there - is impure."
* * *
On Rosh Chodesh Av in the year (1741, he left from Livorno, Italy with a group of students, 30 in all, for Alexandria in Egypt. From there he was to travel to Jaffa, and then on to Jerusalem. The boat that they had taken stopped in Alexandria, from where the group was to travel to Jaffa and then on to Jerusalem, but the captain instead took them to Akko, where they arrived at the end of Elul 1741.

In fact, this turned out to be a favor that G-d had done for them, for an epidemic had broken out in Jaffa and Jerusalem. This is also why the Ohr HaChayim established a yeshiva right there in Akko and stayed there for nearly a year, until the middle of 1742.

In Eretz Israel, he was accustomed to pray at the graves of the tzadikim. He would go with a flock of his students, whether it be in Jerusalem, or in Tzefat and Tiberias in the Galilee. In Tzefat he was warmly greeted, and even the Beit Midrash ['Study Hall'] of the revered Rabbi Yosef Caro (the author of Shulchan Aruch) was put at his disposal. There, according to tradition, the holy Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria) had prayed.

From time to time, Rabbi Hayyim and his students left for pilgrimages to the graves of the tzadikim, Tannaim (sages of the Mishna) and Amoraim (sages of the Gemmara/Talmud) buried in the villages of the Galilee. They approached the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron with particular emotion, and even though they traveled there by riding donkeys, when they saw from afar the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on the mountain summit of Meron, Rabbi Hayyim descended from his donkey and began to climb on all fours, uttering with a bitter voice:

"How can I - who am nothing - how can I enter into that place of fire, wherein dwells the flame of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah, while all the heavenly guides and all the souls of the tzadikim are here!"

When he visited the holy places of Tiberias, Rav Hayyim Aboulafia [an influential Kabbalist] would insistently beg him to settle in Tiberias and to take charge of the new Jewish community of that city. In the end, our teacher decided to establish his yeshiva in Jerusalem, and near the end of the year 1742 he settled in the holy city with his students. His emotions in arriving in the holy city were expressed in a letter in which he enthusiastically described his first Yom Kippur in Jerusalem:

"I saw a great light at the time of Kol Nidre … and when I opened the inner doors, it was truly for me like opening the doors to the Garden of Eden. There was such radiance in the synagogue that everyone was overflowing in supplications and cried abundantly in their desire to see the construction of the Temple. Believe me, in my entire life I had never seen such a thing."

Among his students was the Chida [Chayim-Yosef-David Azulai], who was 18 years old when he joined the Ohr HaChayim's group as the latter ascended to Jerusalem. Even though his master lived only 11 months in Jerusalem, the Chida had the time to serve and learn Torah from him. In his book, Shem HaGedolim, he speaks with great praise of his grandeur:

"I had the merit to be part of his yeshiva. My eyes saw the greatness of his Torah, his extreme gentleness, and his extraordinary holiness. One perceives his wisdom in his books, yet this represents but only a fraction of his insight, the greatness of his heart, and his exceptionally sharp mind. All day long there hovered over him a spirit of holi-ness and detachment from the world, as well as exceptional spiritual strength."
* * *
During the last year of his life on earth, our teacher was awake on the seventh night of the Sukkot Festival-- -- and recited the traditional Hoshana Rabba tikkun. His expression was radiant as the sun; his face emitted rays of glory; he appeared like an angel dressed in white.

When midnight arrived, he went alone into his room, removed his white clothes, then dressed in black and prostrated his entire body length to the floor and began to cry bitterly. He remained stretched out this way until the time for prayers arrived, after which he returned to his room and again stretched himself out on the floor until the start of the Shemini Atzeret festival. He then came out dressed in white.

After the holiday, the Chida asked the saintly Ohr HaChaim the meaning of his behavior. He responded that he had prayed for the arrival of Mashiach and that his prayer was heard.

"But after," he explained to the Chida, "the Angel of Death saw that evil was on the verge of disappearing, so he put all his efforts into saturating the world in sin, and suc-ceeded to the extent that the situation reversed itself and destruction had been decreed."

When Rabbi Hayyim had seen this, he had prostrated himself and began to pray with all his strength, to the point of having accepted to take upon himself the burden of the decree, thus saving the entire generation. Because of our numerous sins, this is what happened. He departed from the world within the course of that same year."

The Chida finishes his account of what happened by saying that he had understood from Ohr HaChaim's remarks that his teacher was the appointed Mashiach, and that he was prepared to come out and reveal himself, but because of our many sins it was not possible to do so.

Rabbi Hayyim did not live long in the holy city, and before a year had passed from the time of his arrival, he departed from this world and joined the Heavenly Yeshiva: "Because of the sins of the generation, he fell ill and died at the young age of 47, in the year 5503 [1743]."

Our teacher died on a Saturday evening, at the beginning of the night. At that moment, the Baal Shem Tov had just finished washing his hands for the third Shabbat meal [in Europe, the sun had not yet set], when he said, "The light of the Orient has extinguished,"(5) meaning that the saintly Ohr HaChaim had died.

At the moment he passed, his friend Rav Hayyim Aboulafia fainted in Tiberius in the middle of prayer and remained unconscious for almost half an hour. In regaining consciousness, he said that he had accompanied our teacher up to the doors of the Garden of Eden.

Rabbi Haim Ben-Attar's tomb on the slope of the Mount of Olives is among the holy places where many people come to pray during the entire year. A particularly large crowd journeys there on the day of his Hilulah, Tammuz 15.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Source: Excerpted and freely adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from hevratpinto.org (where it seems to be based mostly on a report by the Chida).

Why This Week? The 15th of the Jewish month of Tammuz [2026: Tuesday, June 30] is the yahrzeit of the Ohr HaChayim Hakadosh.

Biographical note:
Rabbi Chayim ben Moshe ibn Attar [of blessed memory: 5456 - 15 Tammuz 5503 (1696 - July 1743)], known as the "Ohr HaChayim Hakadosh" after his acclaimed commentary on the "Five Books of Moses," was one of the most prominent rabbis in Morocco. It is well-known that the Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Chasidic movement, had the utmost esteem for the Ohr HaChayim. In 1741 moved with his two wives and his daughters from the second wife (he had no sons) and 30 students to settle in the Holy Land. His resting place on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem is the occasion for a large annual pilgrimage on his yahrzeit.

Footnotes:
1.Sephardic spelling
2.Or 'Chaim' Ashkenazic spelling.
3.See story #451 in this Email list
4. For the full, amazing story, See story #712 in this Email list

Yerachmiel Tilles is co-founder and associate director of Ascent-of-Safed, and chief editor of this website (and of KabbalaOnline.org). He has hundreds of published stories to his credit, and many have been translated into other languages. He tells them live at Ascent nearly every Saturday night.

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