This photograph, from 1955, shows Rabbi Aryeh Levin, known as Rav Aryeh. In this photograph Rav Aryeh is dressed in Chassidic clothes, with a jacket (presumably a long one) and a streimel, a traditional fur hat worn by Chassidic men. He is holding an object in his hand, presumably a case used to keep Megillat Esther (The book of Esther). Together with Rav Aryeh three other people can be seen, a man with a tie, another man with a beard and a young boy.
Would You Like to Know More?
Rabbi Aryeh Levin - Rabbi Aryeh was born in 1885 near Bialistok (then the Russian Empire, today in Poland) He made Aliya to Israel in 1905 and lived in Jerusalem. Rav Aryeh is famous for his good deeds, his sincerity and his modesty. In 1931, the chief Rabbi of Israel at the time, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook appointed Rav Aryeh the official Jewish chaplain of the prison, a position that he filled throughout his life, on the condition that it he would do this for free. This was the time of the British Mandate, and many of the prisoners in the prisons of Jerusalem were members of the Jewish underground groups – Hagana, Palmach, Etzel (Irgun) and Lehi (The Stern gang). Rav Aryeh would walk to the main British prison in the Russian Compound where he would comfort the men, pray with them and convey messages to and from their families. Each of the men who met the Rabbi, including many Arab prisoners, were touch by his warmth and kindness. The Rabbi was also very much involved with the prisoners that were condemned to death finding any opportunity to petition for a reduction in their punishment. Not succeeding in preventing their executions, Rav Aryeh was the one who spent the last hours with the condemned men.
Rav Aryeh was also known as the Rabbi of the lepers. The Rabbi's biographers tell the story that Rav Aryeh saw a woman crying next to the Western Wall. The woman explained that her children had an incurable disease and was locked up in a leper's prison. Rav Aryeh decided to visit the child and began to visit lepers and other sick people, especially if it was known that they had no other visitors.
Would You Like to Know More?
Connection to Parashat Metzora
Parashat Metzora deals with rituals for cleansing people with a skin disease. The word Metzora is usually translated as Leprosy. While, the biblical leprosy is probably not the bacterial disease that is known in modern times, both resulted in skin affliction and distancing the leper from society. Rav Aryeh, is an example of people who cared for these people, despite the fact that by doing so they were being exposed to the disease.
