R.Ezrah Cohen Perachyah
special hospitality
the following is from the book "BeTzel Ilan Hachaim" Vol.1 ch.1 (with permission)
R.Ezrah Cohen Perachyah was a hidden tzadik who pursued acts of kindness without limit. Despite his greatness in Torah and acts of kindness, he dressed and acted with utmost simplicity and plainness, appearing like an ordinary working man with a simple cap on his head. He had a cheese and yogurt business which he worked at. R.Ezrah possessed a high level of ruach hakodesh (holy spirit) and he had tremendous spiritual powers which he modestly concealed from people.
He immigrated to Israel in the early 1900s and eventually settled in Tel Aviv. The great kabalist Rabbi Mordechai Sharabi asked him to open a class in the Torah of the Arizal (Kabalah) to bring the Geulah closer and many hidden tzadikim attended these classes. Most of the great kabalists and sages of the previous generation were offered hospitality in his home and some even stayed with their wives and family for weeks or months or more there.
When a group of torah scholars would come to visit him without any prior notice whatsoever, they were amazed to find at their arrival the table fully set with food ready for the exact number of people in their group, no more and no less. R.Ezrah was able to see that they were coming to him.
R.Ezrah had a learning time with Eliyahu HaNavi. Once his sister prepared a drink for her brother who was sitting and learning and casually prepared two cups for she saw him learning with someone. But when she arrived with the two cups, R.Ezrah was surprised that his sister saw the holy "guest" who was learning with him.
R.Ezrah had a close friend which he learned with by the name of Yisrael. Both of them made an agreement that whoever died first would come in a dream to the other to tell him what happens in the upper worlds.
R.Ezrah died first. His son R.Chaim later asked Yisrael: "did my father come to you in a dream?"
"Yes," Yisrael replied. "Your father appeared to me in a dream and told me a few things but I don't have permission to say them except for one matter only!"
R.Yisrael told over to R.Chaim: "your father told me that when his soul ascended above, they judged his case and ruled that his place is in Gan Eden. A Malach (angel/spiritual being) came and began to take him to his place in Gan Eden (paradise).
But R.Ezrah stopped and sought to go in the second path (i.e. to see what happens in Gehinom). But the Malach told him that there is not his place for there is the place for the wicked who did not merit to Gan Eden. But R.Ezrah insisted that he wants to go in the second path. Then the Malach took him to the path which leads to Gehinom. When R.Ezrah reached the opening to Gehinom, he grabbed from there thousands of souls and ran with them and entered them in Gan Eden!!"
Such was the holy tzadik R.Ezrah who even in his death strived to help others.
R.Ezrah's son - Chaim Perachyah
Rabbi Ezrah Perachyah was the father of R.Chaim Perachyah (the famous chalban/cheesemaker) who would also become one of the 36 hidden tzadikim. When R.Chaim was but two years old, the Tzadik R.Yehudah Leon Patilon called to R.Ezrah saying: "Rabbi Ezrah, do you want to know what kind of lofty soul little Chaim has?"
"Yes", replied R.Ezrah. Then R.Patilon brought a cup which he had just immersed in a pure mikveh (ritual immersion). He put the toddler Chaim on his lap and asked him: "Chaim, what do you see on the cup?"
The little toddler answered immediately in clear language: "I see on the cup the Name of Havaia (the Tetragramaton), blessed be He", to the amazement of his father that such a small child who barely knows how to speak already revealed his powers to see the Name of G-d on a cup immersed in a pure Mikveh.
A similar incident occurred when little R.Chaim was 8 years old. One day he saw the hidden tzadik R.Yosef Waltach (who he did not yet recognize). Behold, he could see the light of the Shechina (divine presence) on the face of R.Yosef.
Little Chaim turned to him and said: "you are a hidden Tzadik, right?"
"What are you talking about?", answered R.Yosef Waltach, "don't confuse my brain. I am just a simple person".
"no, no", continued Chaim, "for someone else you can trick and hide yourself. But me you cannot trick. I see everything on you.. I see that every night you pray the Tikun Chatzot (midnight prayer) with great crying and you bear sufferings and fasts for the Tikun of the Shechinah (rectifying the Divine presence)".
But R.Yosef stuck to his and said: "you are just saying nonsense, I am a nobody".
Afterwards, R.Yosef went to the home of R.Ezrah and told him what his little son said. R.Ezrah answered him: "yes, it is true, my little Chaim has some degree of Ruach Hakodesh (holy spirit). If you want to test it yourself, take a cup which has been immersed in a mikveh and show it to my son and see what he tells you".
Immediately, R.Yosef immersed a cup in a mikveh and came with it to Chaim who told him immediately, I see the Name of Havaiah (G-d) illuminating on the cup in your hand". From then on, a strong bond of friendship formed between the two.
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