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Writer's pictureRon Traub

THE RABBI OF THE PRISONERS - RAV ARYEH LEVIN

Updated: Jun 4, 2021

MY ISRAEL:



There is according to Kabbalistic belief, 36 Tzaddikim (righteous persons) in each generation, who by their virtue greet the Shehinah (the divine presence). Furthermore, the kabbalists believe that their presence is essential for the world to exist & only emerge from their anonymity & humility in times of great peril. Sometimes referred to as the “Lamed vav-niks”. In Hebrew, the letter Lamed has the numerical value of 30 & the letter Vav 6, hence the 36.


In the prologue to his book about Rav Aryeh Levin entitled “A Tzaddik in our Time”, Simcha Raz, the author, wrote that Rav Aryeh must have been one of the 36 hidden Tzaddikim in whose merit the world exists. In the sentence following he questions this assumption, and asks himself if there could possibly be another 35 like him? Such was the love and respect accorded to Rav Aryeh by all segments of the population, both observant & non-observant Jews as well as non-Jews.


Born in 1885 near the village of Orla, near Bialystok, which was then part of the Russian Empire but today is part of Poland. He attended the great yeshivot of Slonim, Slutsk, Volozhin & Brisk, & in 1905 immigrated to what was then Ottoman Palestine.


In 1925 Rav Aryeh was appointed as the Mashgiach (spiritual advisor) of the Etz Chaim Yeshiva, an orthodox yeshiva located on Jaffa road close to the Mahane Yehudah Market. Stories abound about the relationship between Rav Aryeh and his students whom he loved and cherished & who in return reciprocated in kind.


Devoid of any materialistic ambitions, he lived his whole life in a sparsely furnished apartment in Jerusalem’s Mishkenot Yisrael neighborhood. Once when attending a funeral at the Sanhedria cemetery where he was later buried, Rav Aryeh stood next to Abraham Axelrod, the late deputy-mayor of Jerusalem. On completion of the burial ceremony, he told the deputy mayor that the move from his apartment to the grave will not be too traumatic, as the difference between his small apartment and the grave is not so very sharp.




Rav Aryeh would visit the sick in hospitals, first inquiring from the staff which of the patients had not received visitors. His visits also included hospitals for lepers, one of which was located in Bethlehem. Patients would burst into tears on seeing him as it had been years since they had seen visitors from the outside world due to the infectiousness of the disease. His pious wife regularly prepared meals for the sick, which Reb Aryeh distributed.


The following episode aptly encapsulates his relationship with his beloved wife Hannah. On an occasion, his wife felt pains in her foot. In response, he accompanied her to the doctor and said to him “My wife’s foot is hurting us”.


I would however like to focus the remainder of this article on Rav Aryeh’s visits to members of the Jewish underground whom the British imprisoned in Jerusalem’s central prison during the Mandate Period. (1917 – 1948).


In 1931 the British authorities approached the then chief rabbi Rav Avraham Kook and requested of him to appoint a Rabbi who would visit the Jewish captives on Shabbat. Rav Kook & Rav Aryeh had formed a deep friendship based on mutual respect, so I do not believe that he had any difficulty in deciding whom to appoint, and was on occasions herd to say, “If there were three Jews in our generation like Rav Aryeh, the Messiah would come”. Consequently, the chief rabbi turned to Rav Aryeh who undertook the task on condition that he would not receive any compensation for his time. Thus, Rav Aryeh became “The Rabbi of the Prisoners”.


Stories abound of how Rav Aryeh, in his own inimitable way brought solace, comfort and hope to the incarcerated, particularly to those that had been condemned to death by hanging. He prayed with the prisoners, talked to them individually and acted as an emissary between them and their families.


This man’s every step was holy and the exchanges between his “congregants” and him ran into the hundreds upon hundreds. Unfortunately, a short article such as this cannot begin to do justice to the numerous exchanges between Rav Aryeh and the prisoners. I do however feel compelled to relate an incident. Smoking is one of my many vices & some of the prisoners shared my addiction. On seeing Rav Aryeh arriving at the prison on one Shabbat an inmate swallowed his live cigarette so as not to desecrate the Shabbat in front of his Rabbi.


In 1965 on his 80th birthday, a ceremony arranged by veteran underground resistance fighters to honor Rav Aryeh took place in the courtyard of the old central prison in Jerusalem. Rav Aryeh concluded his speech to his “congregants” with the following request, “I do not know if I shall be privileged to be with you again like this. All I ask of you is this: “Tell your children: There was an old Jew in Jerusalem who loved us so very much!


The tears he emitted at the conclusion of his speech, where accompanied by the tears of the many who were present.



Ron Traub (Tour Guide & Architect.

Website: rontraub-tours.com

Photo’s: Rimonah Traub & the internet.





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