Please Decree That Moshiach Must Come

When Rav Chaim Elazar Shapira of Munkatch came to Eretz Yisroel, he traveled to Yerushalayim especially to meet the Saba Kadisha, who by then was living in the holy city after leaving the rabbinate of Tzfas and was well over a hundred years old.

During the visit the Munkatcher spoke Loshon Kodesh with a Sephardic accent so that the Saba Kadisha would understand him. He had been practicing, for he had a unique and wondrous request. He had brought a holy, secret letter, an igeres sesorim, which he had inherited from the holy Komarna Tzaddik, Rav Yaakov Moshe Safrin. It foretold that the way to bring the Geulah closer depended on the decree of the Tzaddik HaDor. If the Tzaddik HaDor would decree that Moshiach must come, the Geulah would be hastened.

The Munkatcher held that Rav Alfandari was worthy of making such a decree, and he asked him to do so. But the Saba Kadisha refused. In his humility he answered, “I am not a tzaddik.”

This conversation took place eight days before the Saba Kadisha left this world, on the 22nd of Iyar.