The Chance to Open the Gichon

It is told that word of Rav Chaim's greatness reached even the gentiles of Eretz Yisroel, and sometimes this put him in grave danger. He longed to stay in the Holy Land, yet on one occasion he had to run for his life to Damascus.

On a certain Friday the gates of Yerushalayim were locked and nobody could go in or out. The city's Muslims were gathered at the mosque that sadly occupies the site of the Bais HaMikdash. A senior officer named Abu Sifin, a bitter enemy of the Jews, passed by one of the gates. In the quiet, deserted streets, he caught the sound of running water below it. This was the stream of Nachal Gichon, which King Chizkiyohu had blocked when Sancheriv threatened.

The officer recalled the channel and the man who had closed it, and asked his soldiers whether any Jew could reopen it. One replied that a great Rav lived nearby who was capable of anything. Within the hour Abu Sifin stood at Rav Chaim's door. He demanded that Rav Chaim open the channel for the city's water supply, and threatened death if he refused.

Rav Chaim had no wish to invoke Hashem's holy Name for public, open miracles. He ran, and through kefitzas haderech (a miraculous shortening of the road) he was in Damascus that same day. Exhausted, he slept, and the Arizal came to him in a dream.

The Arizal asked him why the Gichon had not been opened. That moment, he said, would have been the time to mend what Chizkiyohu did against the will of the Sages, and it would have launched the Geulah. Rav Chaim wished to go back to Yerushalayim at once, but the Arizal told him it was too late, because the moment was gone and the opportunity lost.