Welcome to the Daily Holy Story. The great Rabbi Rabbi Shimon Lavi was among the great wise men of Spain. He was the one who wrote Bar Yochai (poem), which many Sephardic Jews read every Shabbat. One day, he decided to go with his two friends, Rabbi Mas'ud Alfasi and Rabbi Aaron Peretz, to Eretz Yisrael (Israel). All of them began traveling together, but none arrived in Israel. Rabbi Mas'ud stayed in Tunisia. Rabbi Aaron went to Djerba. Rabbi Shimon Lavi continued toward Eretz Yisrael. But on his way to Israel, when he reached the country of Libya, he arrived in the city of Tripoli, where there had once been a very, very beautiful community of Jews. But 40 years before he arrived, the king of Spain conquered it and exiled all the Jews to Italy. The Jews returned when Rabbi Shimon arrived.
But Rabbi Shimon Lavi saw that the congregation of Jews didn't know anything. On the night of Shabbat, they were praying the Amidah during the week. They didn't even know how to pray. He realized that he had a responsibility to the Jewish population in Tripoli to remain there and teach the Jews Torah. He became one of the greatest leaders in Tripoli. It became a place of Torah. He printed and wrote his great Perush (commentary) on the Zohar, Ketem Paz. The Jews loved him, and so did the Muslims, for he was a very holy man. When he passed away, they announced that his gravesite should be one of the holy places of Tripoli in Libya, among Jews and non-Jews alike.
Many years passed. The head rabbi of the nearby city of Amrat near Tripoli was traveling to Tripoli. En route, he ended up bumping into a gang of robbers. He ran away and found himself in the middle of nowhere. Then, with all his might, he reached the holy grave of Rabbi Shimon Lavi. It was locked. He held on to the chains of the lock and screamed out, “Rabbi Shimon, save me, save me!” The robbers caught up to him at the gravesite. They went around and passed by him, but they couldn't see him. Many times they passed by him, and they didn't see him. He was saved. This is the merit of the holy graves of the great tzaddikim (righteous people), who, after they pass away, are even more powerful than during their lifetime. Have a wonderful, wonderful day.