It’s Always Shabbos in Meron

Rav Yechezkel Roth the Karlsburger Rav of New York leads a venerated  beis hora’ah in Boro Park but his heart is attached to Meron where he spends weeks secluded in the holy tziyun of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai. He doesn’t divulge too many of his mystical secrets except to hint at the cryptic blessings all Jews can attain. “When a Jew leaves here he’ll take with him the blessings of Shabbos — the blessings of Rabi Shimon — and all entreaties will be accepted.”

The regulars in Meron are used to the scene. It’s only Tuesday yet the elderly rav is bedecked in his Shabbos finery his head crowned with a shtreimel as he’s bent over the text of the Idra Zuta. Jews of all stripes approach him reverently whispering their full names in request of a brachah or a yeshuah in the merit of the holy Tanna whose body lies in this sacred place.

From dawn until long after the sky has filled with stars the rav sits in the tomb and toils in the Torah of Rabi Shimon bar Yochai. Between davening and learning he approaches the large stone monument in the center of the tziyun — adorned in its ornamental velvet paroches — and murmurs chapters of Tehillim as he invokes the names of his many brothers and sisters in need of heavenly salvation.

This is Rav Yechezkel Roth of Boro Park gaavad of Karlsburg eminent posek. His venerated beis din in Boro Park is already cultivating its third generation of dayanim and as the author of the eight-volume set Emek HaTeshuvah he stands at the helm of an impressive system of batei hora’ah that respond to intricate sh’eilos from around the globe.