The Kiddush Levana That Foretold War

The elders of Tzfas used to tell that one night in Chodesh Nissan, after Rav Alfandari finished reciting the berachah of Kiddush Levana with his congregants, they noticed that his gaze was drawn up to the sky, as if fixed on something far away. Then he clapped his hands in despair and let out a deep sigh of anguish.

When they asked what he saw that troubled him so, the Saba Kadisha answered, “I see a great war drawing near. Soon war will break out and strike the world harshly.”

It is told that this happened at the start of Nissan 5674 (April 1914), and that the First World War began not long afterward.