It happened on the 29^th of the Jewish month of Menachem-Av, Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul, 5331 (1571). “I want you to go to Kfar Avnis,” said Rav Yitzchok Luria, the holy Ari, to his main talmid, Rav Chaim Vital, “to daven at the graves of Abaye and Rova.” The Ari taught him the special yichudim (‘Unities’) which were necessary, what he had to learn and the tefillos he was to say, so that his soul would become bound up with two of the greatest Talmudic sages, thus enabling him to understand the secrets of Torah which they were then discussing in the Heavenly Yeshiva.

Rav Chaim went to Kfar Avnis. The sun beat down upon his head and he stopped to rest on a mound of stones just outside the village of Biriya. While sitting there, he reviewed everything his master had taught him so that they would flow smoothly when the time would come to prostrate himself on the grave.

When he arrived, he fulfilled his master’s instructions. He davened, prostrated himself and concentrated upon all the esoteric words which the Ari had prepared for him. Suddenly he felt his heart open up within him and deep secrets became clear which he would never have understood by his own efforts.

Rav Chaim returned to Tzefas in excellent spirits and went at once to tell his master what he had succeeded in learning since last seeing him. When he knocked upon the Ari’s door and entered, he found him surrounded by the group of people who always attended his lectures. The Ari looked up at Rav Chaim standing in the doorway and rose in his honor, exclaiming aloud, “Boruch haba! Blessed is he who has come. Welcome!” He made a place for Rav Chaim right next to his own seat. Rav Chaim realized that this betokened something, for his master had never shown him such deference before.

When the listeners had gone, he could no longer contain himself and asked, “What have I done to deserve this unusual show of respect and welcome?”

“My dear talmid,” Rav Yitzchok replied, “The deference I showed you was in respect for Benoyohu ben Yehoyoda who accompanied you when you entered.”

Rav Chaim was surprised and asked, “But I only visited the tombs of Abaye and Rova. Their spirits should have escorted me. How did Benoyohu’s spirit become entwined with mine?”

The Ari explained, “The souls of these two Talmudic greats are sparks of the soul of Benoyohu, the chief sage and general at the time of Dovid HaMelech, and the order of study and tefilla which I told you to go through at their grave is fitting for his soul also. Tell me, did you, somewhere on your way to Kfar Avnis, stop to review what I had taught you?”

Rav Chaim nodded his head. “Then,” said the Ari, “surely the spot where you stopped off must be the precise location of the tomb of Benoyohu ben Yehoyoda. That is how his soul came to be bound up with yours!”

Sometime later the Ari and his talmidim visited many tombs. Along the way, between Kfar Biriya and Kfar Avnis, Rav Chaim saw the mound of stones where he had rested on his previous trip. As the group passed this spot, the Ari stopped and said to his followers, “See, this is the grave of Benoyohu ben Yehoyoda. Let us daven here, for we will then merit the revelation of profound things from him.”

Only then, did Rav Chaim fully understand what his master had told him on that Erev Rosh Chodesh Elul.

[Adapted by Yerachmiel Tilles from: The Arizal – The Life and Times of Rav Yitzchok Luria (Mesorah).]

Rav Chaim Vital’s reputation for greatness spread even to the non-Jews of Eretz Yisrael – and this in itself sometimes caused him serious problems. Despite his strong wish not to leave the Holy Land, he was once forced to flee for his life to Damascus. Here is that story:

One Friday, all the gates of Jerusalem were sealed off. No one was permitted to enter or leave the city. The Muslims gathered in the mosque that, tragically, stands where our holy Temple once stood in all its glory.

One of their high-ranking officers, a rabid Jew-hater by the name of Abu-Sifin, was passing by one of the gates. In the silence of the empty roads, he heard the sound of water flowing beneath the gate. These were the waters of Nachal Gichon, the stream of water that King Chizkiyohu had sealed off when facing the enemy, Sancheriv [see Divrei HaYomim II 32:30].

The official, recalling the existence of this water channel and knowing who had sealed it off, turned to his men.

“Is there any Jew who is capable of opening this channel?”

“Certainly,” one of his men replied. “Not far from here lives a great Rav. He can do anything!”

Within the hour, Abu Sifin was standing in Rav Chaim Vital’s doorway.

“Listen, Jew,” he said. “The people of this city need the waters of the Gichon. I command you to open the channel – on pain of death!”

Rav Chaim did not want to use Hashem’s holy Name to perform open miracles in public. Instead, he fled, and with kefitzas haderech (miraculous shortening of the way), he arrived in Damascus the same day. He fell asleep and had a dream in which his master in Kabbola, the holy Arizal, appeared to him.

“Why didn’t you open the Gichon?” the Ari asked. “This would have been the proper time to repair what King Chizkiyohu did against the Sages’ wishes. Had you opened the Gichon, it would have been the start of the Redemption!”

Rav Chaim Vital wished to return to Yerushalayim at once, but the Arizal stopped him. “The time has passed,” he said. “We have lost our chance.”

[Source: Adapted and supplemented by Yerachmiel Tilles from Stories My Grandfather Told Me (Mesorah) by Zev Greenwald]

Rav Chaim Vital lived in Damascus and for a period of some months the Arizal kept coming to him in his dreams each night and spoke with him, urging him to come to Tzefas to learn from him. “Come and I shall reveal to you secrets that have never before been revealed since the Creation of the world!” Rav Chaim, however, took no heed of these nightly visions, and assumed at the time that his own learning was superior to the Arizal’s – after all, he had already authored his own sefer of commentary on the holy Zohar. One day, after contemplating the matter, Rav Chaim finally agreed to visit the Arizal and see for himself if his nightly visions were true and what the Arizal could teach him.

He traveled to Tzefas and and approached the Arizal, testing him through a certain ma’amar in the Zohar, a very difficult passage that Rav Chaim Vital already thought he understood very well. The Arizal revealed the meaning of the passage of Zohar together with profound, hidden secrets that were so powerful and awesome that when Rav Chaim Vital heard them he felt his soul almost leaving his body! Rav Chaim then asked about the meaning of a different passage of Zohar and the Arizal opened for him many more openings of great spiritual light. Eventually, Rav Chaim became humbled before the Arizal like a servant before his master. When he asked for another explanation, the Arizal held up his hand and replied, “Sorry, the boundary is here. You are unworthy of knowing more.”

Hearing this, Rav Chaim was extremely distressed. He went home, donned sackcloth and began to cry and wallow in ashes and dirt, pouring the ashes on himself and wailing, bemoaning his unworthiness, begging to be found worthy of studying Toras HaKabbola from the Arizal. He fasted and cried all night in prayer to Hashem.

The next day he fell before the Arizal, kissing his hands and feet and the hem of his robes and cried, prostrating himself, begging to be worthy of studying and learning from him. “Please, for Hashem’s sake, do not send me away empty-handed!”

The Arizal responded, “Really I should turn you away for having held back so long from coming before me for some three months. However, your fasting and mourning in sackcloth and ashes have succeeded and now I shall not hold back any more secrets of Torah from you.”

Rav Chaim sat among the talmidim but he would learn and forget, learn and forget, again and again, over and over – until they traveled to Teverya.

When they reached Teverya they took a small boat and sailed on the waters of the Kinneret. They sat in the boat together, Rav Chaim Vital and the Arizal, until they reached two large pillars, the ruins of an ancient shul. The Arizal took a small flask and filled it with water from between the sunken pillars and gave Rav Chaim Vital to drink, and told Rav Chaim, “Now you will be able to hold onto this wisdom and stop forgetting, for these waters are from the wellsprings of the Be’er Miriam.” Rav Chaim stopped forgetting and was able to remember and gain insight into the depths of wisdom of the secrets of Torah. (Shivchei Ha’Arizal)