Although the Grandfather Kadisha of Rozhin purchased the right to light the Rashi's Zion in Meron for full money, 70 years passed before the first descendant of the Rozhin family actually lit the Rashi's Zion in Meron. • On the history of lighting the Rashi's Zion, which belongs to the Rozhin family - and was inherited by the Bayan Rebbes
Why is the Rebbe of Bayan lighting a fire on the roof of the Zion Rashbi?
Many years ago, the Grandfather Kadisha of Rozhin purchased the right to light the Kadisha in Meron from the rabbis of Safed for full money.
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The person who lit the bonfire for many years was the rabbi of Safed, who was one of the Rozin Hasidim. Thus, each year a letter and a special "mission letter" would be sent to him regarding the lighting.
The Rebbes would pay a sum of money each year for the right to light the fire, and appoint a special messenger to do so.
The first to receive the emissary was the late Rabbi Aharon Brandoin, who was also the grandson of the sister of the Grandfather Kadisha of Rozin and lived in Safed. After his passing, the emissary was Rabbi Raphael Zilberman, the rabbi of Safed, who was appointed as the emissary of the old Rebbe of Sedigora, and later as the emissary of Rabbi Yitzhak of Bayan.
After his death, his grandson, the Reverend Rabbi Avraham Leib Silberman, served as the Rabbinate of Safed for many years, and was the emissary of the Rebbe of Bayan-Czernowitz. The Silberman family was closely connected to the Rebbes of Beit Rozhin, especially to the Rebbe of Shtepinashet.
About thirty years ago, Rabbi Zilberman lit the traditional lamp. Years later, it was Rabbi Simcha Kaplan.
The first descendant of the Rozhin family in the light
However, from examining the dates, it becomes clear that more than 70 years have passed since the grandfather Kadisha of Rozhin acquired the right to light the fire, and until one of his descendants actually lit the fire.
From various documents discovered in recent years, it becomes clear that the Rebbe, Rabbi Avraham Yehoshua Heshil of Kapitsnitz, was the first to participate in the lighting of Meron. In 1916, when he was not yet serving as Rebbe, he decided to visit Eretz Israel. Rabbi Avraham arrived in Eretz Israel during the summer months and participated in the lighting of Meron.
When he returned to his home in Vienna, he immediately went to his cousin, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Nachum of Bayan-Czernowitz, and told him about his exciting experiences from his visit to the Land of Israel, and especially what had happened in Meron. He succeeded in moving him so much that he too decided to go and bless the land.
Indeed, the following year, 1957, he arrived in the country at the beginning of the month of Iyar, and for the first time, a Rebbe from the Bayan lineage lit the lamp. Many descriptions, letters, and photographs remain from that historic visit.
Several years later, in 1933, his brother, the Rebbe of Bayan-Lemberg, immigrated to Israel, and he also lit the candle in Meron. Another brother, who served as the Rebbe of Bayan in Leipzig, who immigrated and settled in Tel Aviv, lit the candle in 1959.
The Rebbe, Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo of Bayan, the grandfather of the current Rebbe of Bayan, who lived in the United States, lit the lamp only twice - in 1959 and 1962. The Rebbe of Kapitsnitz zt”l visited the Land of Israel several more times, and on behalf of his cousin, the Rebbe of Bayan in the United States, lit the lamp in 1968 and 1970.
The Rebbe, Rabbi Mordechai Shalom Yosef of Sedigora, also lit a fire in one of the years.
In those years when there were no Bayan Rebbes in the country, other Rebbes did not want to light or touch the power belonging to the Bayan Rebbes. For example, the Rebbes of the House of Husiatin, as well as the author of the Avir Yaakov of Sedigora, never agreed to light.
The Rebbe of Bayan lit the fire in 1939, when he was still a young man.
Since then, he is the only one who has lit a candle on the memory of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, may God bless him.
