Climbing Steps in Chevron

Chevron was home to great rabbis and kabbalists, especially following the Spanish expulsion during the 16th century, which was something of a “golden age” of Jewish settlement in Eretz Yisrael. Illustrious Chevron residents included Rav Eliyahu de Vidas, author of Reishis Chochmah; Rav Shlomo Adani, author of Meleches Shlomo; and Rav Avraham Azulai, author of Chesed L’Avraham and ancestor of the Chida, who also resided in the city. The 19th century brought the likes of Rav Chaim Chizkiyahu Medini, author of Sdei Chemed, as well as growth of the local Chabad community. In 1924 the Slabodka Yeshivah arrived.

In his memoirs, an American Chevron-Slabodka talmid named Dov Cohen recounted the visits to Chevron by the Imrei Emes of Gur (1927) and the Rebbe Rayatz of Lubavitch (1929). While the Imrei Emes was granted the privilege of ascending to the 11th step at the entrance, the Rayatz was accorded unique treatment. Accompanied by his son-in-law Rav Shmaryahu Gurari and community leader Eliezer Dan Slonim (a descendant of the Baal HaTanya), the Rebbe was brought inside the building, in defiance of Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, who had directed the keepers of the mosque to deny entry.

Ten days after the Rayatz’s storied visit, Chevron Arabs would massacre 67 Jews, bringing the centuries-long presence Jewish life in the City of the Avos to an end. It would resume following the Six Day War, when Rabbi Moshe Levinger led a group (posing as Swiss tourists) to spend Pesach in Chevron and later refused to leave, laying the foundations for what is now the Jewish community there.

A Shiur for The Ages

While the Imrei Emes did not have the Slabodka Yeshivah on his Chevron visit itinerary, the bochurim had other ideas. When his car passed the yeshivah, they surrounded it and asked the Rebbe to deliver a shiur. He asked what masechta they were studying; Sanhedrin, they replied. The Rebbe got out and ran into the building. He glanced into a Gemara Sanhedrin, then posed an incisive question, to which he delivered an insightful answer. Bidding farewell to Rav Chatzkel Sarna, he departed as quickly as he’d arrived.