The Chazon Ish in Beis El

When the Chazon Ish visited the Kosel and the Old City together with Rav Osher Zelig Margolios, he stopped at the famed Yeshivas Beis El, the yeshiva of the mekubalim. He sat there learning by heart in deveikus (cleaving to Hashem). When he left he remarked, "It is a great zechus to visit such a holy beis medrash of the Rashash, where great and holy tzaddikim learned and davened with the secrets of Hashem. Sod Hashem liyerei'av."

In the yeshiva there is a side room with an opening that leads down a stairway to a wide courtyard, where a cavern is found. In this cavern the tzaddikim practiced hisbodedus (seclusion), using yichudim and kabbalistic tefillos and devotions. The Chazon Ish entered that room, went down the stairs, entered the cavern, and said, "This is truly a good place for hisbodedus."

There are those who relate that in this cavern the Rashash, together with the Chida and Rav Chaim DiLaRoza, fasted for three days straight, davened, performed yichudim and rolled in the snow, in an attempt to hasten the end of days and the coming of Moshiach. After three days they heard a heavenly voice declare, "My sons, you are forbidden to hasten the end. I must separate you so that you three do not remain as a group. I decree that one of you must go into exile."

The three tzaddikim drew lots, and it was the Chida who sold his possessions and left for Livorno, Italy, where he lived out the rest of his days.