Paper Trail   

A treasure trove of unpublished letters written and received by the secret mekubalim of Tel Aviv tells a lot about life in the ’50s and ’60s, but also sheds light on the spiritual struggles of the Streetsweeper, the Shoemaker, the Painter, the Milkman, and the famous rabbanim who held their secrets, as they all grappled with visions of the Upper Worlds while living in the hotspots of hedonism

HE locks the door behind me, opens the safe, and takes out the treasure: Dozens of stamped envelopes scatter across the office desk, and the small room seems to fill with light.

I carefully pick up a single envelope. It seems to contain a random letter between friends. But then I read the following lines:

“It’s been a long time since I have seen him, not while awake and not in a dream, and I yearn to see him and to hear good tidings from him… and also which good news and which chiddushei Torah he has heard from Eliyahu Hanavi zachur latov….”

The letter is signed simply “Yosef Waltuch,” but after reading its content, I begin to shiver. Rav Yosef Waltuch was one member of the famed group of hidden tzaddikim and mekubalim who lived in Tel Aviv in the mid and late 1900s. Which of his colleagues was he talking about, who was zocheh to learn Torah straight from Eliyahu Hanavi?