The Kever That Would Not Move

As the city of Sighet grew, the non-Jewish authorities decided to relocate the old Jewish cemetery in order to gain living and commercial space. City officials hired many workers to move the graves and remove the tombstones and markers. When they reached Rav Tzvi’s matzeiva, it would not budge. Other workers came and tried their hands at removing it, but to no avail. Slowly they began to realize that anyone who dared to try moving the Rav’s matzeiva or kever dropped dead.

The mayor and the city officials heard of the mysterious deaths, but they refused to accept that these were anything other than work accidents. The mayor himself declared, “Tomorrow I will arrive myself, and personally supervise the breaking and removal of the tombstone.”

The next day the mayor arrived with four workers and a team of workhorses, harnessed and ready to destroy the kever. They tied a rope around the Rav’s kever, and the wicked mayor gave the signal for the horses to begin pulling. But as soon as he gave the signal, he himself dropped dead beside the kever.

At that point the workers lost their nerve. They fled in terror and vowed never again to touch the kever. They built a fence around it to protect it, and themselves, from harm, and to safeguard the sanctity of such a holy place.

Later, when the Communists took over the government, their offices were housed in a building opposite the Rav’s kever. They too wanted to uproot it, for it was a thorn in their sides. But the local Jews, who had been safeguarding the site for some time and had become accustomed to asking the tzaddik for protection and salvation in times of need, refused their request. They warned the officials, “Don’t start up with the holy Rabbiner.” The warning was heeded, and his holy kever stands to this day.