The Miracle of Purim Meyuchas

When Rav Ovadia Yosef taught the Mishnah in Avos (2:2), "Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rav Yehuda HaNasi, used to say, '...those who work for the community should do so for the sake of Heaven, for then the merit of their forefathers aids them,'" he would illustrate it with the following true story.

On the fifteenth of Cheshvan 5483, the wicked Yusef Pasha was appointed ruler, and soon he arrived at the gates of Yerushalayim. He brought only trouble and calamity for the Jews of the Holy City. He invented offenses to throw their leaders into prison, often tortured false confessions out of them, and then took large bribes from their families and the community in return for their release.

Rav Moshe Meyuchas was the chief leader of the Jewish community of Yerushalayim at that time. The Pasha jailed him in iron chains and threatened him with violence and death unless he produced the enormous sum of 91,000 grush within three months. After torturing him, they released him for a time so that he could try to raise the ransom, and the Jewish council met to decide what to do.

Rav Avraham Yitzchok, the author of Zera Avrohom and head of the council, proposed sending a trustworthy shadar to the Jewish community of Constantinople to raise funds. They cast lots to choose the emissary, and the lot fell on Rav Raphael Meyuchas, the Bechor Shmuel, author of Pri HaAdama.

He traveled to the port of Yaffo, where a ship was leaving for Constantinople that very day. He boarded in the evening, and five days after setting sail they reached Constantinople.

There he met the Mahari Rozanes, author of Mishna LaMelech on the Rambam, and told him the whole tale of the sufferings of the Jews of Yerushalayim at the hands of Yusef Pasha. The Mishna LaMelech called for Reb Jalibi Zonana, the head of the Jewish community of Constantinople, who represented the Jews in all their dealings with the royal court. Reb Zonana took Rav Raphael into his home, fed him and cared for him until he recovered from the long, exhausting journey. Then Rav Raphael told him, too, the story of Yerushalayim's troubles.

Reb Jalibi sat down on the floor and wept and mourned over the suffering of Yerushalayim. Soon he rose, went before the royal court himself, and begged the king to issue a royal edict ordering the Pasha to cancel his evil decrees. After leaving the king, he turned to the wealthy Jews of Constantinople, and they all contributed to the cause, as did Reb Jalibi himself.

Rav Raphael blessed them and thanked them for their help. He then set out for home by way of Egypt, which he reached on the fourteenth of Adar. In Egypt he met the Chief Rav, Rav Avraham HaLevi, author of Ginas Veradim, and the two spoke and learned Torah together. On the sixteenth of Adar Rav Raphael continued on his way. After midday he saw nine Arab brigands approaching from the horizon, swords drawn, their eyes blazing with murder.

In an instant they killed his donkey and demanded all his money. He gave them everything he had, and they stripped him of his cloak and clothing, leaving him in only his breeches and tallis katan under the desert sun. They pushed him to the ground, and one of them struck him on the neck with his sword. The blade broke in half. One after another, all nine brigands brought down their swords on him, and one after another the blades shattered. Rav Raphael felt nothing at all, for his neck was as stiff as marble.

They left him in the desert with no food and no water, yet Hashem's salvation came in a moment. After the brigands had run about two miles, they fell paralyzed one by one, unable to move their limbs. Terrified, each said to the others, "We must go back to that Jew, so that he can heal us and save us." Strangely, whenever they tried to go forward they were frozen, but toward the Rav they could move freely. They returned all the money and clothing they had taken and begged his forgiveness. Rav Raphael was astonished to watch the brigands crawl back to him, sobbing and pleading for mercy. When they had returned everything, they left. He stood speechless, thanking Hashem for the miracle and wondering what would happen next.

What came next was more wondrous still. A giant with a fiery face appeared and asked where he was going. When Rav Raphael answered that he was going to Yerushalayim, the Holy City, the giant told him gently that he had nothing to fear and that he would help him. In an instant, as if by a miracle, Rav Raphael found himself in Yerushalayim, safe and sound.

After these wonders Rav Raphael took upon himself a neder to keep the seventeenth of Adar as a family holiday, in commemoration of his personal rescue. This account is printed in the sefer Pri HaAdama, which preserved it from the handwritten megillah of miracles that Rav Raphael himself recorded on klaf parchment. Afterward he was appointed Rishon LeTzion, Chief Rav, and he served in that post until he passed away.