Holy Ari

 4 Av

Tonight is the 5 Av yahrzeit / death memorial of the Holy Ari.

Below is a photo I shot in Tsfat of the Ari's grave about a decade ago.
I had travelled to Israel with Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield, z'l (died 2009) and Renewal chevre. At Elat Chayyim in 1993, I first studied with R. Aryeh, Porland, Oregon rabbi. I had greatly enjoyed his teaching, and gifted him with a percussion instrument, chachas, which he placed on his altar in the class room.


I was grateful that Southern CA dear friends, Lois and Bob Rubin, were with us. Berkeley friend, Moshe Tov Kreps, also loved Tsfat, and made aliyah. He opened a healing center, HaLevav, now also a music center. 


It felt really good being in Tsfat and we didn't want to leave. We loved visiting with artist, David Friedman, and also discovered artist, Avraham Lowenthal. Loved having Shabbat in Tsfat. Loved seeing the Breslover yeshivah. Loved visiting Tsfat resident, dear former Berkeley friend, Ida Lewis. Amazing to me that at the 1993 Kallah, Ida recognized me from Jamaica High School in NY. In 2009 in N.Y., I visited Ida and her then dying father, z'l, a Holocaust survivor.


Tonight for the Ari's yahrzeit, friends teaching at Ascent in Tsfat, Schwartzie and Olivia Schwartz, will take my prayer to the Ari's grave. I have sent them the photo I shot.

  

Isaac Luria (1534 - 1572) (Hebrew: Yitzhak Lurya יִצְחַק לוּרְיָא), also called Yitzhak Ben Shlomo Ashkenazi (Isaac ben Solomon Luria) acronym "The Ari" (The "Godly Rabbi Isaac") "Ari-Hakadosh", or "Arizal", meaning "The Lion", was a foremost rabbi and Jewish mystic in the community of Safed. He is considered the father of contemporary Kabbalah, his teachings being referred to as Lurianic Kabbalah.

Grave site of the Holy Arizal, 5 Av, for the yahrtzeit of the Holy Lion.
photo by Joy Krauthammer ©

Because LA's Chai Center co-director, Schwartzie, is teaching in Tsfat during the Yahrzeit, I asked him what it says on the Ari's grave. He responded:

"On the grave is tht the Ari said tht B4 morning prayers every1 shd say, 'I take upin myslf the Biblical Commandment - Love your neighbor as yrslf'."

AMAYN.

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