The Western Candle Has Gone Out

In the year 5503, at Shalosh Seudos on Parshas Balak, the Baal Shem Tov suddenly said to his talmidim, “I believe that the Ner HaMaaravi, the Western Candle, has been put out.”

After Havdalah the talmidim asked what he had meant. He explained that the holy tzaddik, author of the Ohr HaChaim, had left the world. He knew this because there is a secret about netilas yadayim, the washing before eating bread, which is revealed to only one tzaddik in each generation. Until that day the secret had been held by the Ohr HaChaim. Now it had been revealed to the Baal Shem Tov, so he understood that he alone knew it, and that the Ohr HaChaim must no longer be in this world.