Students from all of the Vizhnitz chassidic movement's senior yeshivas gathered on Thursday night at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron to pray for the full recovery of the Vizhnitz Rebbe, Rabbi Yisrael Hager, known in prayer as Rabbi Yisrael ben Leah Esther.
In the Patriarchs' Merit
Vizhnitz Sons Lead Prayer in Hebron
Students from all of Vizhnitz's senior yeshivas joined the Rebbe's three sons on Thursday night at the Cave of the Patriarchs to pray for his full recovery.
The prayer gathering was led by the Rebbe's three sons: Rabbi Chaim Meir Hager, head of the Vizhnitz rabbinical court; Rabbi Yitzchak Yeshaya Hager; and Rabbi Yaakov Mordechai Hager, head of the Vizhnitz rabbinical court in Elad. The students came to plead for the Rebbe's recovery together with all the sick among the Jewish people.
After davening Maariv, the yeshiva's spiritual supervisor, Rabbi Yisrael Ernster, urged the young men to keep praying without letting up and to beg the Creator to send a swift recovery from Heaven to the Rebbe, whom he described as "our father, our shepherd, the crown of our heads."
The students then recited Tehilim with deep emotion and went on to sing niggunim, invoking the merit of the three Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are buried at the site in Judea and Samaria. They expressed faith that their prayers would not go unanswered.
The gathering closed with a rousing rendition of the chassidic song "Nor Emunah in Borei Kol Olamim." The site has drawn growing numbers of Jewish worshippers, a trend that has angered the Palestinian Authority, which has protested what it calls the "Judaization" of Hebron.
The Vizhnitz Rebbe's sons praying in Hebron| צילום: Photo: Courtesy of the photographer
