The Book of Jerusalem Journeys

We put on Sabbath clothes and blessed the candles. The ship’s officials gave us the large auditorium for prayer and the meal (because there is no one from the nations of the earth [non-Jews] on this ship aside from our group). Our rebbe came from his stateroom wrapped in a talis [ . . . ] and recited the prayer in his strong voice. All of us were stirred and when we said the prayer for sea travelers each of us was moved profoundly with the fear of God and his majesty, that of the creator of the sea and who disposes of all souls, and we prayed that He would lead us in peace to our country. [ . . . ]

From Alexandria we traveled by railroad via Benha–Kantara–Lod [ . . . ] to the Holy City but, due to our many sins, when we arrived in the Holy Land it seemed to us like an alien country because we saw the Jewish officials approach and we distanced ourselves from their ways, these innovators, that is, the freethinking Zionists who spoke to us in Hebrew which is spoken in all stations of steam conveyances [railroads?], they having made the language a vernacular, despised by all those who fear God because this is but the holy tongue of our Torah. [ . . . ] (except for the Sefardim who speak the holy tongue since ancient times and they do it in holiness). [ . . . ]

We arrived in Jerusalem on Thursday, the tenth of Iyar [ . . . ] and when a person comes close to holiness his heart opens up and his mouth is filled with praise for having merited this. [ . . . ] [When the rebbe arrived] he tore his clothes [a sign of mourning] in a way that cannot be repaired. With a broken heart and tears running down our faces, we tore our clothes, made the blessing when a person dies (without saying the name of God), said the prayer upon death . [ . . . ]

Because of our sins, [on the Temple Mount] the Arabs [“Ishmaelites”] built a castle of impurity . . . to the shame of the Shekhina [God], as if it were, and to the shame of Israel his closest people. [ . . . ]¹

[ . . . ] We arrived at the Munkacs Kollel² in the new part of Jerusalem [ . . . ] so the rebbe could find a place to rest, and the courtyard was full of men, women, and children. The streets we passed by on foot were full of people, and [ . . . ] we were amazed to hear even from the pious women who were whispering that a holy man was passing by [ . . . ] and “may his arrival bring our salvation,” their lips trembling in a feeling of holiness. That impressed us greatly and we realized that they were not living off the fat of the land but, like most residents of the Holy Land, had difficult, sorrowful lives and nevertheless they anticipated the deliverance [ . . . ] who is like your people Israel [ . . . ] because of the merit of righteous women they merit to be liberated.

The land is very, very good. We journeyed [to Safed] among the hills of Jerusalem, seeing the undulating hills and valleys. The fruits, grains, and vineyards were a delight to the eyes and the rebbe, may he have a good and long life, enjoyed seeing this. It revived him and he breathed the breath of life and remarked, how lovely and pleasant this land is that God gave us and promised us as our heritage.

But in contrast, we were agitated and depressed when we passed by the ugly encampments [ . . . ] some colonies of the Zionists or religious Zionists [mizraḥim—the name of the religious Zionist party was Mizraḥi]³ and their like [ . . . ] who had come and defiled our holy land, they and their wives, sons, and daughters. They resemble evil, filthy things inwardly and outwardly. They know not of God, do not observe the Torah, and anger God with their deeds. [ . . . ]

[In Safed-Meron, on Lag ba-Omer, they witnessed the first haircut of a three-year old boy, as is the custom among some Haredim.]

A child of three was brought into the House of Study [ . . . ] dressed in nice clothes, with beautiful eyes, very good looking, reflecting the visage of God, and with his side-curls arranged very nicely. They shaved him in the House of Study, distributed baked goods and drinks and, with warm feelings, they danced. The father hoisted the boy on his shoulders and his relatives did likewise, and they danced around. It was a pleasure to see this holy picture, which gladdened the heart and brightened the eyes. It’s worthwhile to have sons on whose faces the fear of God is seen, and to rejoice with them in a mitzvah and with love because they are our lives and the span of our days.

Around midnight, from our windows in Safed we could see the bonfires in Meron [ . . . ] the rejoicing of thousands of Jews went on through the morning. [ . . . ] But on the advice of the Haredim of Jerusalem and Safed, our rebbe, may he have a long and good life, did not go to Meron, since because of our many sins, there was a mixture there of the good and the worst. At night, a mob of men and women pioneers of the Zionists, Satan lurking among them, danced—boys and girls together. They made merry and joked around in the holy of holies. [ . . . ] On the morning of Lag ba-Omer when we traveled from Safed to Meron, we met these evil people as they were returning, boys and girls together, and they sang together, even though the voice of a women is seductive [kol isha ervah]. And the holy Tanna [rabbi of the Mishnah], Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai⁴ [ . . . ] will certainly take revenge upon them.

We passed the devastated holy places in Safed which, last year [1929] the Arab Ishmaelites destroyed. They had no mercy and slaughtered the innocent holy lambs, Jewish souls and those who fear God. They showed us the house that had been the residence of a great rabbi who was the first victim when the evil ones suddenly burst into his house as he was studying Torah and spilled his blood as if it were water—may God take revenge for his blood. These sights shattered our bones; the ears shall ring of everyone who hears these things, and now God shall arise and will take revenge on his enemies.

The rebbe decided to eat the third Sabbath meal in his residence, but the Hasidim of Sanz [Nowy Sacz, Poland] begged him to eat with them [and they agreed to yield their customary songs and words of Torah to the rebbe’s way of doing these things].

The rebbe girded his loins and spoke pure words in a fired-up way, reproving his listeners, all of whom trembled, for having permitted the breach of allowing the thugs (the Zionists and their ilk) to desecrate the holy city of Safed with their schools [ . . . ] which leads their students into sheol [hell]. He said with bitter tears, “have pity my beloved brothers on your male and female children and on the public and rise up against the rebels and raise the flag of Torah on the old way of teaching, which is pure and holy. [ . . . ] My brethren, do not fear and guard your souls so that their terrible fires not burn among you. Adhere to the Torah of Moses given to us at Sinai and that will hasten the complete redemption. [ . . . ]

We deviated a bit from our route in order to pass through the city of Tel Aviv. We saw there a solidly built city with beautiful palaces but at the lowest possible spiritual depths because most of the residents are Zionists and mizraḥim, farmers who violate the Sabbath openly and in secret and eat nonkosher food and are not careful regarding the laws of family purity, just as in the agricultural colonies. [ . . . ]

[Rabbi Shlomo Eliezer Alfandari] was very sorry about the establishment of the chief rabbinate, created in Palestine by the freethinking Zionists. He related that when the English monarchy conquered Palestine [1917], because of our sins the freethinkers gathered together all of the rabbis of Jerusalem to establish a chief rabbinate (which he called a rabbinate of heretics). Another rabbi wrote to him (we know his name) asking, in the name of all Sefardic rabbis, that he should be made the Sefardic chief rabbi and he would restore the glory of the Torah.” [Rabbi Alfandari rejected this request and wrote] [ . . . ] “You believe those Zionists! [ . . . ] I can tell you that now the Zionists are choosing the elderly, but later they will despise them and replace them with black-bearded rabbis [ . . . ] and later with rabbis who have no beards at all. Therefore, you should know that the destruction of Torah and Judaism in the Holy Land begins with you, and you will have to render an account in heaven for all the sins of the coming generations, etc.”

They asked him [Alfandari] about the Agudah.⁵ He replied that there is no difference between the Zionists and mizraḥim, and the Agudah, only in name do they differ. [ . . . ] And he was very pleased to hear from the rebbe that he knelt before none of the political parties and sects, but protests against all of them.

When the rebbe was in Jerusalem the greats of the Haredi rabbis asked him what to do about the Slobodka Yeshiva [founded in Kovno/Kaunas, Lithuania] which used to be in Hebron and after the riots came to Jerusalem. Most of them (though they are learned) and their students have short side-locks and trimmed beards. They do not shave their heads and that’s the way they were in their country. [ . . . ] [The rabbis were fearful] that the Jerusalemites would be influenced by them. The rebbe [ . . . ] replied very wisely that one should treat them kindly because of all they had suffered when some students from their yeshiva were killed [in the Arab riots] . . . and if you bother them they will drift toward “that man,”⁶ Kook and the Zionist rabbinate. [ . . . ] And he explained that their rabbi, Moshe Mordechai (Epstein), is learned, but he loves money very much. And Kook is like that [ . . . ] but if the rebbe comes out against them, that they, the Slobodniks would join Kook and his faction, and that’s not worth it.