#189: Chida: 40 Years of Danger, Journeys & Discovery

And interestingly, in the first edition of Schema Gdälim, which is, as we said in Encyclopedia of Gdälim through the ages, which was printed in 1770, there is no entry for either of them. But later in the 1780s, when he republished, both Rviak Vendun and Rviensnäbyssitz are included. Why? Welcome to History for the Curious. I'm Manor Eisner and I host the International Renowned Lecturer, Dynamic Historian and Tour Guide, Brabhai Aubrey-Hersh. Experience our history, confront dilemmas and reveal the untold stories of 3000 years of Jewish heritage, from Paris to Cairo, from the Russian Zart, my monodies and from the Sina Revelation to the French Revolution. Join the fastest growing Jewish history podcast in the world by subscribing to this channel and discovering the events that have shaped us into who we are today. And welcome back, Brabhai Hersh, where a few days late, this podcast, due to your travels. Yes, been to Budapest, Vienna, Nickelsburg, Rosnitz, with a killer from Lakewood, a second time that I've been with them. And the unlikely double act of yourself with Jerry Newcombe. Yes, yes, and the Rov, the output killer, very, very nice killer. So, yes, back now on Terraformer, till Pesach-Mietershem. So, today's podcast is dedicated by Mouche and Esther Kurtz, undisputed number one fans of the podcast. Wow, wow, you're going to upset a lot of people. Well, I'm just reading what they wrote. That's what you get if you dedicate. And it's Lerufursh Lehmur for Yakuv Mordechai Ben Miriam and Benjomenakivabhenchana, as well as for the project Emuner Fanon Rebutzens, which is a project of Esther Kurtz that makes Emuner and Betochen concept accessible and practical to, well, non-rebutzens. The project offers an audio series learning shower betochen through 90 second daily clips completing the show in six months. The series is educational, inspiring and funny. You can find the series on all podcast platforms and if you're more of a visual Lerufursh Lehmur join the daily WhatsApp group to get the video accompanying each daily thought. Esther also teaches a short weekly share on shower betochen through Jewish workshops going deeper, answering questions live and leading a supportive WhatsApp community. More information can be found at esthakertz.com and the link will be in the notes below. So thanks very much for the sponsorship and today we're going to be covering the life and even more so the travels of the famous Rida, reprim yourself tovid as a lie who spent over 40 years outside their tutorial, returning in the middle twice and had more adventures and stories than any modern day explorer. He traveled across Europe extensively, traveled from Turkey to England and particularly around Italy and then North Africa and he wrote a book about it. So a very interesting life. Yes, so let's start with his family origins on his father's side. He was the great grandson of a barraum as a lie known as the chesset Lavrom who was a famous cabalist who uncovered the hidden and buried manuscripts of reprimed vital insuria which led to the printing of the its time. The family had originally left Spain during the expulsion and came from Castile. They ended up in Morocco but a century later the chesset Lavrom decided to move to Errati-Saral, on route they stopped in Greece. Trust after they disembarked from the boat a storm arose and destroyed the ship and all of the possessions that they had on the boat which included many of his writings. And they realized that the fact that they had disembarked just a few minutes earlier saved their lives. And as a remembrance of Zeichere to this nace the chesset Lavrom formed his signature from then on in the shape of a boat which we have copies of, it's quite a complex signature. Although interestingly the Chidau himself actually had a very unusual signature too. So the Chidau was born in his salam? Yes in 1721 which was actually a time of great upheaval there because a number of movements arose in the late 1600s, early 1700s to return to Errati-Saral. One was led by a Polish rabbi called Rabiudah Haasid and not to be confused with Rabiudah Haasid from the 12th century. It was the broad several hundred Jews with him, it was what you might call messianic in nature and Mashiach was to appear by the year 1706. They landed in Errati-Saral, they were penniless, no means of support and they overwhelmed the local population. They doubled it because in other words for every one of these new arrivals was one native Yurushalmi Jew. And then a few months after they arrived, Rabiudah Haasid dies, it leaves them basically completely adrift there, leaderless, they've got no money. So they borrowed money from the Muslims, they built a shawl, they are unable to pay the loans so much so that in 1720 the Muslims take over the shawl and destroy it for the debts that were outstanding. And that's how the name came about, the famous Khurvashul which remained that way and it's destroyed form for decades afterwards. Yes, I think even possibly 120 years. But beyond the communal upheaval in Yurushalmi at that time, the Khidor's birth was also out of the ordinary. He was born premature at the end of seven months and he appeared to be lifeless. They thought he was still born, they left him. His grandmother saw some sign of life and she wrapped him in a cloth, she warmed him up, she was almost a muchaimaisim and she got him to cry and that's how he lived. The Khidor's father was Ravyatschok Zarakhia, one of the Khidor's Khachmuyushalmi at the time and he would sign on the Takanus, the Piscadine, the legal rulings of the best-in. The Khidor's mother, who was called Sara, was actually Ashkenazi. She was the daughter of the Mokubal Revusive from Biala in Poland, although when the Khidor was eight, his mother passed away in a pandemic in Yusul-Aim. And the Khidor writes that many years later, when he was in Germany, he met his mother's sister, Moros Githli, Bus, Marzikni, Hachosid, Hama Kubal, Yerashra Maim, Ish, Hoolikim. And he asked her exactly how they are related to the Smar, to rubishrofalk, the author of the Dhrishra, because he didn't know his genealogy. He was that well because his mother passed on when he was so young. Now the Khidor was a prodigy and he became a prolific writer. Sharia Safe is his Safe on Huryus. And in the approbation of the Haskommas, that the Khachma Yerashra Maim wrote to that Safe, they describe him as a teenager when it was written. And it's in fact hard to keep track of how many his foreign he wrote. The estimates range from 60 to 140. Part of the problem is that a number of them are still in manuscript form in Kisfejjad. And also that a number of his works can be divided, for instance, the most famous Safe, Shemhagadolim, which we'll come back to a number of times, is really too smart. And he wrote on Kabbalah as well as Halacha and the Rebuyl Torah. Because of his teachers, you have his uncle, Ravnavan. And for a year he was taught by Ravchaim Ibn Atar, the famous Erakheim, the Khidor describes how every Motsashrabbas, they learnt through the night and they divided the night into four parts. They did Mishnah, then they did Gomorrah, then they did Halacha, and then they did Zeihar. And in to spurs the whole thing with Kabbalistic prayers composed by the Erakheim. And the Khidor writes how he saw the Erakheim fast for three consecutive days from morning till night, the 11th, 12th and 13th of Adar. So that's an element of the Kabbalistic writings that you refer to. Also his Rebi the Rasash, Ravsham al-Sharabi, was the head of the Yashiva, the Kabbalistic Yashiva Betel. And every night they would say Tikkun Khatsayz with the Kavanus of the Ari, which were part of an oral tradition to holy, to be committed to print. So it sounds like he was very connected to Rishalheim. Why then was he specifically the one who we know travelled all over the place? So Erakish Ral is going through economic hardships. And in 1753 the Kehla of Hevron needed somebody to represent them as a, what was called the Shadar, a Shluchadrabon, an emissary to raise funds for the Kehla, but it needed to be a Talmud Hachim. You couldn't send anybody out there. And the irony was to make your question even stronger, he writes, "Ad-Hena, Le Nasati, Prashas, Derochim, I have never travelled, he writes basically, I'm talking about even in Eritis Ral. He stayed in Hevron and Yashilheim, he was never in Tveria, in fact at one point he writes, "This is probably what they do in Tveria when he was asked about a particular. HALACHIC practice. And when he was asked the same thing about Svarsis, he says, "I don't know." So what's the needed someone of a great caliber to represent them? Basically. And he therefore sets out on their behalf. And he left on a Tuesday, going with a day where, you know, Kytov is written twice, the fourth of Schwarz, and this journey would last almost six years. Kytov written twice, that is a good day to start a journey. I don't know if that is, people assume that to be the case, but this is what the Gidor himself. As you travel very often on Sundays, Mondays. Yes, but I have the leisure of being able to choose which day to travel on, but having said that, this is Gidor's approach to it. He's saying off he went with no knowledge of Europe or the communities there, or I guess the language as well, he had nothing, absolutely nothing. Yep, language was a real challenge because fundraising is somewhat of a delicate task. You need to be face to face, you need to have persuasive conversation. And now it has to take place in a foreign country, I mean in a different continent. And he's going to North Africa, to France, to England, to Germany. Was he known there at that point? Not at all. So the Gidor picked up somehow Ladino and Italian. His French seems to have been good enough for sort of tentative conversation. Obviously he had a knowledge of Arabic, and Germany therefore ends up being the Sirius obstacle. He doesn't speak German or Yiddish. Obviously he can fall back on Hebrew monks Jews, but that's not going to get him through borders and into towns. However, Hashgochah threw him in Frankfurt into the company of a young Jew who acted as his guide and who remarkably enough spoke Hebrew with a Svori-dee pronunciation. But when he met people, how did he introduce himself if he wasn't known? So he is an emissary of the Kiilais in Eritis Rural. And he would have letters from them. Right. Obviously the issue is, how do you know that these letters are genuine? I've never seen the signature of the Avbezdin of Urshalayim in 1753. And the problem was exacerbated by the fact that certain European communities had gotten swindled a number of times by frauds, so you needed established credentials. The best he could do at the beginning was have letters signed by these G'daylim, who would be known to the bigger abonym of Europe, but during his travels he accumulated documents, even letters from non-Jewish authorities, because he would be stopped by the police or at borders. He had a letter of recommendation from the Catholic Bishop of Jerusalem, and the French ambassador to Turkey. A letter signed by the local Bezdin, which had an attachment signed by Christian merchants, was very helpful to him in Frankfurt, because Christian merchants recognized those signatures that they did business with. You have the English ambassador in Constantinople, who wrote directly to the Parama Sim of the London Jewish community. In Paris he has a recommendation letter to the director of the West India Company there. And in fact, by the time he's on his second journey, you could probably say that no 18th century rove had better contacts with upper-class non-Jewish society than he did. Now, Kehilus in Ertisrael sent out more than one emissary at a time. There was one for the community, there was one for the Yashiva, etc. And he often crossed paths with them, which could prove quite embarrassing. He met Avram Zevi, who represented the Ashkenazim of Hevron. It happened to be that he and the Chidr gone on very well, in fact they even went collecting together. But more often than not, crossing paths of fellow Shadarim resulted in recriminations and sometimes in scandal. And the small communities of southern Germany were the most suspicious and hardest to get past. Despite his array of credentials, the Parama Sim of Ferzze accused him of being an imposter and refused to make any contributions to his cause. In Harbog, he was ordered out of his lodgings, his baggage was thrown into the street. In Anstin and Duseldorf, he was refused to admitance to the city. By the Jewish authorities, he was forced to spend Shabbos in an inn outside the city. And even his request for wine, for kiddish and food for Shabbos was refused. That seems a bit harsh. You have to understand that these communities firstly wanted to restrict their stocker to the Ashkenazi inhabitants of Ertisral because they had been a formal agreement with the Pekidim of Constantinople that no funds were to be given to any Shadar because the Ashkenazi poor in your slime were in worse strates than the Svartempted. They had been very butt. The crises of the 1700s were far worse than simple poverty and that's why he was going on behalf of the Svartem. He comes to Furt in Germany and there he has refused funds on the grounds that the local "Palestine Fund" had been handed to Yehudah Yeruchum a short time earlier. So the Khidah has to expose this guy as an imposter by means of a document which he had from the Rabanim in Hevaran. So it wasn't so easy. Although hostile receptions fortunately were the exception rather than the rule. He ran into a different problem in London and that was that there was a bitter internal community mochlokas which made the collection of funds extremely difficult. But to look at the positive side when he came to Italy at the city gates his arrival was awaited by a delegation of the leading citizens headed by the Rolf and leaflets announcing his arrival and the purpose of his visit were printed, distributed. In fact when he left the city of Ancona 300 people accompanied him past the city limits and then he describes the unbelievable hospitality that was accorded to him by the Jewish communities of Provas. All in all his dealings with individuals and communities and the boards there show him to have had great tact and his extraordinary measure of success is evident. We have letters for instance one from Hevaran from 1782 where they write that it was largely due to him that the Khidah was able to maintain itself for a period of 10 years. How does collecting overseas work in those days? And nowadays we're just accustomed to the fact that we can wire money, send a check. Does that mean he left with a sack of money and he had to make the scary route back to Eratos Rolf? Yeah I mean we'll come to that perhaps in slightly more detail later but more or less yeah that's what it was. He could stop off at certain places and deposit money with a rob that he trusted and then come back that way. Just see some schlepper on the routes. Right and pick it up. Think of all the borders that you're crossing and the guards and they're looking through your. Yeah it was a total mysterious nephat. Complete mysterious nephat. And we're talking about an emerging goddle and by the time he's on his second trip an actual goddle and he's schlepping around Europe from village to town to whatever. Absolutely. Now he does have highlights in Frankfurt the Chidat met the Pneusure and he is incredibly moved by this. He writes "Anni Hatsa'ir i" this young person as he was at the time "Zochisi Le Cabel Pneus-Chinat" "O Mare'ou Khmeri Malach Elohim" he describes the Pneusure as an angel and he tells the Pneusure that his work is learnt in Yusha Laiim in Yushivis there which mainly were Svaridi and then he writes that the Pneusure told the people to give me a place to live because of the covered deserving to Eritis Roul. So not so much him at that stage just what he was representing. Yes and he met the Pneusure. The Pneusure died in 1756. I think he was there in 1755 a year before he died and he was the Zacan Ayish Roshi Shivas of Europe. I know we touched on before the dangers of carrying around the money but the journey itself we can't forget that must have been in nightmare too. Getting around Europe. Difficult and even dangerous. On his first trip he had an accident on the street of Amsterdam at left among Contras. In Germany he was in the Frankfurt Ghetto and there was a fire that broke out and he is an eyewitness to it. The home of his host went up in flames. This was Chameca of 1754 and the disaster took the life of the Chidaz young guide and to add to the Chidaz sense of grief was the fact that he'd left a considerable sum of money in the home of his host which represented probably months of his effort which the people of Eritis Roul desperately needed and it went up in smoke. He also had terrible experience in the road to London. The group he was with, stopped. They were probably who knows, you know, horses and carts and whatever. And he went to look for a private place. He saw a low stone wall, so he decided to climb over it. But on the other side of the wall was a sort of swamp, and he ended up up to his chest in this field. He couldn't get out. And the group either, he doesn't really describe this, but either they had left, or they were too far away to here. So he is calling for help, he's shouting, until a non-Jewish woman in a farmhouse nearby came out and pulled him out, and he described how he nearly drowned in there. And obviously going back to your point, he is a target for thieves in Italy more than anywhere else. He talks about having escaped ruffians a number of times. And when he's coming to a border crossing, custom guards could make it very difficult for a traveler who carried large sums of money on them, I mean in particular when there was foreign currencies in a time of war. So he is traveling at one stage from Livorno to Izmir, and the boat he is on is stopped. It's searched by the French Navy. He is transferred to a French warship to be searched, and he is terrified that his travel documents might lead to the accusation that he was an international spy. Why have you got all these different countries giving you sort of like a passport? Or that the English letter of credit that he was carrying would be discovered, the French are not going to take kindly to it. So he manages to destroy or hide the incriminating letters, and he ends up with six days of detention, and he describes that more or less as a minor inconvenience. Although there were unique opportunities, especially for somebody who loved Svorem as he did, he was able to inspect manuscripts and books in state and public libraries, and they helped him in his own subsequent writings. The most famous, the most valuable manuscript he learnt through was the famous Munich Talmud from the 1200s, and he says that he read a number of pages of Miserta's Herius, and he found a number of variant readings to the Gomorrah that he was accustomed to see, and he wanted to hang around there, but the wealthy Drew, who was the owner, ordered his servant to hurry him on, and he says that was probably a good idea because he would just spend too much time there. More about the other places in England like Oxford, Cambridge, the British Library, all these places that had loads of manuscripts. So he was possibly in Oxford, it's not clear. The British Library of British Museum, as it was at the time, actually only opened a year after he was in England. So it wouldn't have been there. He thought it's people I'm forever. And he met some interesting people outside of the realm of Torah. There was an interesting meeting in Paris with a guy called Jacob Rodriguez Pereira, who was a pioneering educator for deaf people. He was the official Jewish community representative in Paris, but he invented a sign language for the deaf, and when the Chidam met him, he had already acquired considerable fame in this field, and an annual stipend from the King because it was recognised by royalty and by intellectuals like Rousseau and Diderhoh, they understood that what he was doing was revolutionary, and he ends up introducing the Chidam to sort of elite non-Jewish society. And the first person he sort of instructed with this method was a Jewish boy, a child who was born completely deaf, and Pereira taught him to read Hebrew and French, and the Chidam engaged this child in Hebrew conversation with his questions being relayed by sign language from the instructor, which was obviously a very unusual encounter. In Tunis, he met somebody who considered himself to be a novy, a prophet, and that he possessed the sparks of the souls of Yomrio and Ichescal, although the Chidam notes that this person had clever biblical insights even amid the eccentricity. He also met a Hebrew poetess, the daughter of Riberia Ley, who was the chief rabbi and the Avbez of Amsterdam, and her brother was Ravshol Haagah, and the Chidam praises her piety and verse, and obviously those of you who are coming on the Holland trip will become more acquainted with these Quorum, still four places left of those who want a tour of Holland on the 27th of April. Shameless plug. Absolutely. Back in Achserl in Yoneneu, he also met in France an Ascranazi Jew, Lietman Kalmer, who in his youth had been a servant in the home of Lopus Suasso, who was a wealthy Jew in the Haag, and from the ranks of being this housekeeper had risen to great wealth. He purchased the rights to the barony of Pikini and the title that went with it for one and a half million francs. And the title came with church privileges, but the bishop of Amiens and the Archbishop were not prepared to have a Jew hold an honorary office in the church and the instituted court action to prevent him entering this office, although he retained his title. And then the Chidar saw incredible sort of sights for somebody who came from Erichis Suasl, the zoo in Florence, the Roman stage human Verona, the University of Padua, the palace of St Mark in Venice, and a tour of the Tower of London and an inspection of the Crown Jewels, which led him to write, days are coming, full of glory and pride to House of Israel, to Erichis Suasl and Beneus Suasl when our eyes shall behold our heart's desire. And you wrote all these notes in his like a travel diary? Absolutely. And in fact the diary was probably almost certainly not meant to be printed. It ended up because we had the manuscript. Why don't you say so? Because he writes things there which are, you know, unflattering of certain people and sometimes personal things about himself, it's unlikely that he would necessarily have wanted these things to become public knowledge. Especially the sightseeing elements. Well, you can now go to these places most of them are still around and you can see it through the Chidaz eyes. Now, when he came back from his first trip, it was mid-winter. He took a hazardous trip across the Alps into Italy. The snow was very high and he writes he was wearing multiple layers of clothing and it was freezing. It was mind-blowing to think about. You think of him on his own? Yep. In front of country a god will just walking through snowy Alps. What did he do for food throughout his travels? So he was often a vegetarian during a week because he could not necessarily know about the cushress of a village that he happened to be staying in. For Shabbos he would try to find a rove, but every now and again he had to spend Shabbos in a forest or even in a desert. And he insisted that while he traveled he wouldn't sleep on a bed. He slept on boards wherever he went. Why? Siguifim will come to his personal conduct in personal Alhogus later on, but he had things that he kept as restrictive practices. And he comes back to Eritisor on 1758. But in 1764 there was sort of a lot of politics in New Yorkshire line. There was a vard of wealthy Jews in Turkey who supported many of the most of the institutions in New Yorkshire line because going back to 1720 most of them had gone bankrupt. So they had got together and they founded this vard and they would send money but they wanted to make sure that they were run with financial stability. So they had people perkid him that they sent to Eritisor to oversee the finances. And one of the people they sent to Shlime was someone that the Rabon and Menus Shlime felt was arrogant and they sort of fired him. And they sent the Chidot to go to Constantinople to Istanbul to explain to the people in charge why they had gotten rid of him. So he starts out he goes to Cairo. And then everybody realizes that the person they fired has too many powerful friends in Turkey and he gets reinstated. So there's no point in the Chidot carrying on to Constantinople and now he's stuck in Egypt because the Machlokas is ongoing and he remains there for five years. He visits the Shul in Cairo which was the Rumbums Shul and they pointed him to a closed room which had been the study room of the Rumbum and he also visited an ancient synagogue called the Yerumriyahu Shul which according to local tradition the Novi had built when he left Eritisor at the home of the destruction of the first temple. And visitors were told that in more In one of its sealed areas there is a scroll of a safe atara written by Ezra, and he investigates, and finds out that the safe atara had vanished centuries ago and the whole was actually empty. And while he is in Cairo who finds out that his father has passed away, and during that same year his daughter died in Cairo. And then in 1770 he returns to chevron where he continued to live for three years. But that's not the end of his travels. Not at all. He goes again, and this time actually does not return. The immediate reason for travel was a critical situation which arises because there is a rebellion by a Pasha by Ali Bey against the Ottoman Empire. He tries to remove Palestine from Turkish control and unite it with Egypt. So there are battles, there are food shortages, and travelling from one part of Heratius to another becomes a hazardous enterprise. And Bedouin tribes basically could attack caravans. Listeners will probably be aware that near Telstone there is an Arab village called Abul Ghosh. At the time there were thieves living there who had a terrible reputation and the Khidor writes that he is travelling, the Hanakhsh Hagodl from Abul Ghosh came with 250 of his people to basically loot and kill them. So the Khidor writes, "I used two names of Hakodr Shbaruchu and they left me alone with only a small bribe." And when this army of this upstart in 1768 marches to Jerusalem, 200 Jewish families fled the city. And even worse was the disastrous effect on food supply and the rise in prices. There was a famine in Jerusalem, it took the lives of 300 Jews in a month and a half. And there was a letter sent to American 1772 signed by the Khidor, which describes the city as having been in a virtual stage of siege for three years. They'd been borrowing heavily and the interest is being paid at a rate of 20% annually. The leaders of the Khidor were threatened with jail and even worse the creditors threatened to sell their wives and children as slaves. And he is mis-signific on his behalf and he travels again. He starts out by going to Egypt, he's an Alexandria for a long time because the Russo-Turkish war was raging and Russia had deployed a Mediterranean fleet against the Ottomans and he is a Turkish subject. He's a Palestinian Jew under Ottoman rule. So he is afraid of being captured if he sails on the usual Alexandra to Livorno root and he finds a ship that would sail along the coast and only then turn north to Livorno. And this is considered safer in other words hugging the coast rather than crossing open water. But the voyage itself, the Khidor describes as being absolutely terrible. The captain treated him terribly, he even restricted his access to water and food. Now the Khidor wasn't planning on getting off the boat before Livorno but he was afraid that this captain wasn't going to let him blow Shreifah, make a sucker, all of which by the way he's doing on his own, coming back to the point you mentioned earlier. And therefore in Elle he gets off at the first port which was Tunis and he writes that nowhere did he find a more widespread and intense study of Gomorrah than there. He speaks of there being over a hundred Tomeerichachamim with whom he was able to discuss halachic issues. And in Tunis the Khidor is confronted by a Shadar from Yusulahim who claimed that the Chavron-Kahilla owed him money and therefore said that the Khidor should pay that debt out of the funds that he's collecting. So the Khidor pushes him off a number of times and one day this guy comes to the Khidor and says that he had a dream, that the Khidor's father came to him and told him that he should tell his son to pay the debt which he did and therefore he is now complying with his father's request. So the Khidor now has to carry out the paying of this debt in order to do Kibbut-Av. So the Khidor replied with a quote from the Gomorrah that every dream has some falsehood in it and therefore the whole dream is true except the part in which you saw me pay you. While he was in Tunis he receives very sad news that his wife passed away and he writes and this is highly unusual, I couldn't tell anybody because they would immediately force me to marry somebody from the community and it wasn't only pressure from the community they would get the king involved. We're not quite sure why but this is what he writes, why it would have happened and so he says I had to be Miss Abel Yachid, I had to mourn on my own, he wanted to pour his heart out but how. So when he was saying Tukum Khutsce he would sit and think about his wife and he writes about her that she was Khad Badora unique in her generation, in her Khokhma, in her beauty, in her Khesed and he writes that Daga Belayv Ishi Sikhenov, a person has a problem and issue you should talk it out but he couldn't tell anyone so he wrote it down in his diary. We get another proof that his diary wasn't for public consumption. I guess yes. You haven't mentioned his wife until this point. How was she in the story of his travels for years on end? She did not come with those five years, she was with him when he was in Egypt and then went back to Ertisrael, she was from Ertisrael. So she lived there, he had a number of children, one of whom ended up as a rove in Italy eventually but she stays in Ertisrael when he embarks on his second voyage and about a year later she passes away. Now he leaves Tunisia, he ends up as part of his travel in France again. What you have to realise now haven't mentioned it is that his dress, his mode of dress, was oriental. He dressed as if he was in Urshalay, he never changed it. He is invited to the French Royal Court in Versailles and by chance his visit coincided with January 3rd which was the day the officials of the Parliament of Paris and the Treasury pay their respects to the royal family because of the new year. So he sees the king and his royal entourage into the throne room and the king's eye is caught by the unusual appearance of the Chidot. So he asks one of his courtiers to inquire what country is the Chidot representing as the ambassador. And there are other members of nobility around the court who take him for some official personality and as he passes they bow to him. He thought he was somebody of note which he was but not quite in the way they assumed. And while he is there through the offices of a friendly non-Jew a guy called Monsieur Fabre who was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Chidot received permission to borrow Hebrew manuscripts from the National Library which was a very unusual privilege. The library didn't generally even loan out printed books, far less manuscript. And he finds the Nemoukeha rid a 13th century commentary on Chumich which is a blend of Pilpel and Prat. So the influence of the non-Jew secured it temporary removal and the Chidot copied it extensively during his stay. And finally he makes it way to Livorno in Italy in 1774. And just before disembarking in Livorno, health regulations against the plague required every incoming passenger to spend 40 days in quarantine. You know they were worried that people would carry some sort of illness. And the Chidot writes that during this illness he composed Sheym Haggadolim from memory since he had no swarim with him. The Sheym Haggadolim is in two parts. One is the biography of 1,300 G'dolim until that moment in time. The second half is 1,200 swarim that were written. And a astonishing memory. Unbelievable. Yes. And in 40 days. And in fact in total the Chidot visited 148 cities during his first mission and 156 during his second. So thousands of miles across continents all to bring back funds to her to stroll 250 years ago. Yeah. And we know this basically because of first of all the Sheym Haggadolim because he sometimes writes in there the encounters that he had with Chidotim and correspondence that he has with them. And also this Margult Teyv, this diary that we mentioned put those two together and you have a comprehensive insight which is so unusual for the time. So different to who the path of how people would live, whether even if they were merchants, even if they were businessmen. It's interesting because in modern day times like nowadays Chidotim's do sometimes travel as we know across the globe to raise funds. I thought was a relatively new thing. This has been going on for hundreds of years. And with incredible discomfort. Yes. Yeah. Correct. Although people of hill. note that's much more unusual. So he now settles in Livorno, he remains there until he dies, which is almost 30 years later, and he remarries at the age of 55 to a woman from Italy. Now he did plan to return to Erotisrol in 1787, but there a plague broke out in your Shalime, so his wish to spend his last years in Erotisrol was never fulfilled, although he didn't try again after that time perhaps because he felt he was too old. He had no official position in Livorno, he would darshen four times a year, he sat and wrote a tremendous amount, and he printed most of his foreign there. To give you an idea of how much writing he did earlier, there's a savor called "Marsik Brocha", where he writes "Kashe Kisavti Kolzea Albirkai" when I wrote this on my knees, I didn't have a particular savor, the Elia Raba to hand, and it is assumed that the reason a safer of his is called "Birke Yosef" is because he literally wrote it while he was traveling, having no other desk to write on other than his knees, and in his lifetime he printed 55s foreign. He died on the 11th of Adar, Shabas Parazoha in 1806 at the age of 82, and the entire Kehilla was in mourning and they cancelled the Purim festivities that year. So he died in Italy. In Italy. And 26 Tami Dhecha Khomin, which is the comatry of the Shem Yudkivovke, performed the Taharup, prayered his body for burial, and at the base of Khorus a fellow Shadarab Khaym Abulafia delivered the Hesp of the Eulogy, and he left written instructions for the disposal of his estate, which amounted to a not-inconsidrable sum or $1,500 back then, 250 years ago, and the instruction was that they should learn with this money 18 chapters of Mishna Aday for his Nishrama during the first year after his passing, and for a number of years afterwards on his yacht side at one of the Shivas in Livorno, they would learn through on that day the entire Zaihar, and they would learn from some of his svarim. "Do we know where he's buried?" "Oh, we will get there." He was buried in Livorno. I have actually been to where he was buried, past tense. But let's, for the moment, move to some of his comments. The Khidant asks a question, "How could Rubeyak of Emden, who opposed Shabtitesvi so strongly, who understood sort of fake Kabbalah from real Kabbalah, how could Rubeyak of Emden have said that the Zaihar is not from Boshin Bayakhai?" To which the Khidaw answers, that the followers of Shabtitesvi used Zaihar, they had sort of capitalistic explanations for their shenanigans. So, says the Khidaw, "Lakhain?" Rubeyak of Emden took a drastic move and extreme move to discredit the Zaihar, his Kavonus being the Shem Shramayyim, so that these followers would have no text to rely on. Now, the major Machlokas between Rubeyak of Emden and Rubeyak of Emden and Iberschitz was happening while Khidaw was in Europe. But he didn't travel to Hamburg and Eltona, that area, even though he was in Germany for a while, and even though that area was an important place of Jewish Kihlis and had a Spanish Portuguese presence because he wanted to avoid the Machlokas. And interestingly, in the first edition of Shem Hgidolim, which is, as we said in Encyclopedia of Gidolim through the Ages, which was printed in 1770, there is no entry for either of them. But later in the 1780s, when he republished it, both Rubeyak of Emden and Rubeyans and Iberschitz are included. Why? Because by then, both of them had passed on, and you could show that they were righteous La Acha Moisa, which also explains why he mentions the Balschemt of, and he never mentions the Vilnogorn in his Shem Hgidolim. Because the Balschemt of died in 1760, but the Gorn was still live even after he printed the Shem Hgidolim the second time, he only died in 1797, and he doesn't quote people while they are still alive. He also doesn't quote the Rum Khull, who died in 1743, but that is probably as a result of the Major Machlachis, it wasn't clear yet if the Rum Khull was in the clear. His swarim wouldn't be reprinted until the mid-1800s. And where does he mention the Balschemt of? So the Gidol writes about the commentary of the Eurachheim, why is the Eurachheim being learnt in Eastern Europe? Because the Balschemt of pushed it, and in fact to this date, it's a parish learnt by Chasidim. In terms of some of his personal Hanhogis, his personal actions, he would complete learning through the Mishnah once a year, and Medrish Rabah and the Zahar. And in preparation for Ashashon and Yim Kippur, he would go through the Rambam's Mishnah Terah, the Hilkha-Strivert laws of Rependance, and the sections dealing with the Avoyda of Yim Kippur. On Sukhas, he would learn his Zedus Safer Maseh Hashem, which is an abridged version of all the mystical Kavanus and intentions of the 613 Mitzvahs, according to the Arizel. And on the night of Ashashon Rabah, he would learn through the Idra-Raba and the Idra-Zutah from the Zahar, he would spend all night learning while standing. To get back to something that we touched upon earlier, he was a tzedic in his own personal activities. He fasted often, he was misogyn of himself, and there are many Kabolus that he took upon himself, not to do this or to do that. So you have a person who had his hands in all areas of terror, who wrote on everything, Tanah-Halah-Gumara-Kabala, he wrote by the way five different commentaries on the Haggoda. "Would you say it was a Kabbalist or a Malve-Halachist, like in Jewish law experts?" So it's very interesting, he brings both together, I mean as an example, he was strongly of the opinion that the Psyche, the Halachic rulings, especially in areas of Minhag, of the Arizel supersede the Shulkhunarach, which influenced his rulings on various things on food left overnight, on the Sveksfaken-Bishalakum, and he allows Svardi women to make a brocher on Luluv and Shofar in accordance with Kabbalah as well. So he really does bring the two to bear in one greater whole. He also allows the use of coffee beans on Pesach. He says, they are not kittness, if they have been ground before Pesach, this cover which is spelt kuf al-af-hay-base-yud. He says, "Hu ilan, venase maske." It's a tree which produces a liquid, it's not a bean pulse, it's definitely not something that grows from the ground. Le huma-zøse, whereas he didn't allow the drinking of tea, "Shreymere nafshayyachik milishtoseb pesach," somebody who's careful will not drink a pesach, because Shreymere nafshayyachik milishtoseb pesach, it is cooked, it is made in chomets, keilin, vaachakach miliavshayyin, oh so moechun, oh so, and then it's dried out and sold. So we've managed to make this episode timely. Yes, that's true. In his safer to Perenshamir, he explains that Hidor-Mitsvah actually means doing a Mitsvah with Simhah, which contains more value than the Mitsvah itself, and he quotes something very unusual, you would not have put it to this context. Godel-Hanene-Miyyagia-Kapov, Yehse-Miyaras-Shreymere-Shreymere, which normally translates that greater is the person who benefits from his own handy work, they are greater than somebody who fears heaven. Says the Hidor, it's got nothing to do with what you would normally translate it to mean. It actually refers to the fact that if your attitude is, well, this is a Mitsvah, so I've got to do it. It's a commandment. That is one level you've done the Mitsvah, but if you are Nene, if you enjoy the effort, the Yehgear, if you have Simhah in performing a Mitsvah, you become far greater. It sounds like he was touching on Khasidah's to some level. So it is said amongst Khasidim that towards the end of his life, he was visited by somebody from Eastern Europe, and the Hidor said that had I been more acquainted with the works of Khasidim, I wouldn't have had to write all that I did. That is said. He also writes on the concept or the phrase, "Bashramayim mimal vala orit mitachas." He says what it means is, "When it comes to shamayim to heavenly things, mimal, always look at people above you who have achieved and got more than you." But, "vala orits mitachas," when it comes to earthly matters, physical material things, look at those who have less than you, and that should be where you set your sights. He wrote a safer of "schooless and tphilis," a tphilis for approaching a king, a tphilis if you feel in danger, but one of the topics he refers to often is I in The Chidar treats it as citra-achra, caused by envy or jealousy, and preventable via humility and piety, and he talks about it in drosures and in moussa, and he says that a wealthy boast, somebody who boasts of their wealth risks in ra, where at Stokka and Tera Study shields you, and one should not excessively praise one's own children to others, and he writes about this in his halachas forum as well in Berkiosov in the use of omets, and he also wrote "Kamias" against Einrae, he distributed them, this comes across through his travels, and there is a "tphilla" against Einrae which he wrote, a lachash, which at one point in my life, maybe 20 years ago now, I was advised to say by Ravgumlea Robinovitz, a story of his mother-day, and which no less litvish a goddle than the brisk a rolle used to say. I believe, and I need to confirm this, that has anish to my grandfather to say it as well, when they had a child who was crying at night. Really? Yeah, which my father has, and it's a family thing to say it, but I need to confirm it. And there are some spooky stories associated with the Chidar, which are not recorded at the time, but are spoken of in later sources. A woman who was accused of being unfaithful, who she's brought to the Chidar, who read from a safe at Tera and safe at Bermidbor in front of her, she ignored the warning, and as she left his apartment, she fell from the top step and she dies. And they had the step covered in gold to remember this awe-inspiring event, and Rupchheim Kaniewski writes that he understands that this step remained covered in gold until World War II, till the Nazis gave. And there's a second story, which is more the stuff of legends, that the Chidar and two other G'daylim tried to bring Mashaikh. Now the dates could possibly have called the reason not necessarily, but we're talking about Rupchheim Delarosa, the Roshash and the Chidar in the beginning of 1753. They fasted, they went through Sigufim and Kabbalistic roots and prayers, and they gathered together to actually bring Mashaikh, and a voice called out to them to desist immediately, because the time for Ghulah for redemption had not yet come, and either as a punishment, or according to another version, to prevent the three of them continuing to doth him together, because that would force Mashaikh's arrival, there would be consequences to the actions, one of them would die, one of them would have to travel in exile, and the third will be banished from Yurusha Lime. But this comes about in later times, so maybe. Now, where's he buried? On his 150th theot site in 1956, the Chifrab-o-Rubyut-Hugnissim initiated a project to re-burry the Chidar in Yurusha Lime. He worked together with Dr. Shlema Umbarato Nahan, who was a native of Livorno, and they lobbied for permission to arrange the transfer, and they were assisted by another native of Livorno, the Chifrab-o-Rubyut-Hugnissim, Raba'ilio Toth. It took four years for these arrangements to be completed, and on the 20th of year 1960, the Chibdars remains arrived at what at the time was called Lod Airport. Rev. Hugnissim appointed a rabbinical committee headed by Rev. Hugnissim to oversee the Kvura, the burial, and in striking testimony, Rev. Hugnissim related that when they approached the Orin, the coffin, following all the carrying and the moving and the in-flight, he was scared that the bones had been moved, and he was terrified to actually touch the Lime move them back, so he held onto the opening of the Orin, the casket, and he said, "Our great rob the Chidar, I am not capable of this task, please arrange this on your own." And there was an eerie rattling sound from inside the Orin, and at the conclusion, Rev. Hugnissim asked the Chidar for forgiveness, and the coffin was re-sealed. And the funeral possession proceeded to Roshalim. Rev. Hugnissim had arranged for it to start from the Yashur and Shul, in the corner of King George Street, which is still there today, and the city-wish Lime shut down, stores were ordered closed, traffic halted, and he arranged for a prominent plot at the entrance to the Chalukhshar-Rabonim in Haramun-Ukhus, it's sort of near where Rubmeshran, which is known as Alman the Belzerreba are, but much lower down. It's just as you come in, and the wording of the Matsavin Livorno was inscribed on the new one, and in recognition for his efforts, Romot Chalio was buried next to the Chidar when he passed away in 2010. Why are there certain Rabonim who people put in so much efforts to bring them to Roshalim? And it wasn't a matter of the great being in danger, right? No, it wasn't in danger. And in fact, whether the Chidar was buried, there was a whole line of Godolim to this very day, I was there quite recently, and you've still got the Old Matsavir of the Chidar. Are they left at there? Yeah. He had expressed a strong wish to come back to Roshalim to be buried there. It wasn't bringing a cave from Hutzl-Aret. It's somebody who was a Yelid Yelishalim, who was forced out of there, so to speak against his will. I mean, obviously he did it willingly because he felt he should do it, but this was not his place. His both his parents were in Yelishalim, and therefore you can understand the return there more than other cases, I guess. One incredible story. Thank you very much, Rabonimesh. Please do send all questions and feedback to podcasterjali.org.uk and there will still be one more episode released prior to PASA. Yes, about Mutsa. So you didn't even need to make that little PASA connection. Thank you, Rabonimesh. And as usual, please subscribe and forward any questions. Thank you.