Auction 74
Lot 122:
Sipurei Lamed Vav Tzaddikim Nistarim, in Yiddish. Facsimile edition of the Warsaw 1912 edition. The year is not noted. Good condition.
On the flyleaf, a lengthy notation handwritten by the Kabbalist rabbi Yosef Woltuch from the 9th of Tamuz 1967. In the notation, he expresses his love of the Holy Land and even prophesizes that the cities of Jerusalem, Beit Lechem, Hebron, Jericho, the Strip of Gaza as well as additional sites in Israel shall remain ours: "כל הערים ירושלים העתיקה והר הזיתים והר הצופים ושייך ג’ירח וקבר רחל ובית לחם וחברון ומערת המכפלה ובית ג’אלה ויריחו ונבי סמואל ובית איקסא ורמאללה ושכם וטול כרם וג’נין וקלקליה וכל הסביבות סביב לאורך הירדן הכל ישאר ביד ישראל ממש… לעולם ועד בזכות התנא הק’ הרשב"י זי"ע ועכי"א וכן העיר עזה ורצועת עזה והסביבות וחצי האי סיני עד תעלת סואץ ממש ורמת הרי הגולן… עד דמשק…" He even repeates the wish "הכל ישאר בידינו ממש…" (everything remain ours) several times.
The Tzaddik Kabbalist Rabbi Yosef Woltuch of Zlotchov. In his youth, he lived in the Old City of Jerusalem, and every day he would sneak into the Beit El kabbalistic yeshiva, study the ways of the kabbalists, and sleep very little. His minhag was to lay next to the graves of tzaddikim and he merited wonderful visions and sight of the souls of tzaddikim. However, he would take care not to go to Rashbi’s tomb on Lag BaOmer because of the large number of people there. It is said that during one of his prayers to bring about the Geulah he merited seeing Rachel Imenu wearing black clothes.
Despite his suffering, he worked Hashem with happiness and excitement.
In Iyar 1983 he told a student that if Hashem willed it he would settle in Jerusalem and he went with two students to pray at the graves of tzaddikim in the Galilee. When he left Meron he told them that he didn’t feel well. They continued to the Idra cave to pray, and he told them again that he didn’t feel well. He asked for some soda water, and when he finished the blessing over the soda, he fainted, was taken to the hospital in Safed, and passed away.
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