What motivated the smashing on April 23 of the main gate to Damascus’s historic Jewish cemetery and the digging of a pit disturbing the tomb of renowned mystic Rabbi Chaim ben Joseph Vital (1542–1620)?
The desecration can be understood as part of the history of Jewish and Muslim leaders battling on the metaphysical astral plane in parallel to the normative Israeli-Arab military conflict.
In 1570, the Safed-born Vital became the leading disciple of the visionary Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572). They were at the center of the Kabbalistic circle that flourished in the 16th century in the Galilee town. In the year following his master’s death, Vital recorded Luria’s oral teachings in Etz Chaim (The Tree of Life), which is considered the primary text of Lurianic Kabbalah. Luria, also known by the honorific title Arizal, put almost nothing in writing.
The road to Damascus
Leaving Safed in 1577, Vital moved around before he settled in Damascus in 1594. There, he wrote Sha’ar HaGilgulim (The Gate of Reincarnations), based on Luria’s teachings about souls being reborn.
When he died, Vital was buried in Damascus, and his grave was a site of reverence for Jews in the region. The sage rested in peace there for more than three centuries until 1965 when a consortium of French construction companies began building Damascus International Airport (DAM/OSDI) to replace the Mazzeh military airbase that had served as the country’s main aviation hub.
In the following years, the airport was repeatedly expanded and modernized to meet the increasing demands of international and domestic travelers.
Among the improvements was the construction of a highway which sliced through the centuries-old Jewish cemetery near the Hārat al-Yahūd (Jewish Quarter) in the southeastern quadrant of Damascus’s Old City.
Despite protests, Rabbi Vital’s grave was relocated.
Some considered the fiery crash on August 20, 1975, of Československé Státní Aerolinie’s flight 540 from Prague to Tehran via Damascus divine retribution for disturbing the sage’s remains. Out of the 128 passengers and crew on board, two survived.
A second disastrous accident involving the airport occurred on a foggy night on January 21, 1994. Racing there at 240 km/hour in his Mercedes sports car, Bassel al-Assad – the 32-year-old eldest son of Syrian president Hafez al-Assad – lost control and smashed into a barrier. Not wearing a seatbelt, the heir apparent died instantly. Sitting beside him, brigadier general and spymaster Hafez Makhlouf was hospitalized with injuries. The chauffeur in the back seat was unharmed.
Fast forward 31 years to April 24 of this year, the day before Vital’s yahrzeit (anniversary of his death). Who desecrated Vital’s tomb, perhaps looking for his bones?
Jewish leaders around the world were quick to express their outrage. The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States (ARIS) condemned the vandalism in a statement.
“We are deeply shocked and saddened by the desecration of the tomb of Rabbi Chaim Vital this Thursday in Damascus,” the organization said. “Jews have lived in Syria for thousands of years and are an integral part of its history. We urgently call on the Syrian government to immediately secure Jewish holy sites, synagogues, and cemeteries and ensure their safety, security, and well-being.”
The organization tagged Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in a post on X.
Calls for the Syrian government to act have so far gone unanswered.
Divine plan
Others believed the grave desecration to be a part of a divine plan.
Writing on the haredi website VINnews, Rabbi Yair Hoffman warned, “Divine Retribution Awaits.”
“This desecration occurring just before Rav Vital’s yahrzeit cannot be dismissed as mere coincidence. We must recognize this as a deliberate act perpetrated by those who harbor ill will toward our holy sages and, by extension, toward the Jewish people ...
"History has repeatedly shown, those who raise their hands against our kedoshim [holy ones] invariably face Divine retribution ...
"The Arizal himself revealed that Rav Vital possessed the neshama [spirit] of Chizkiyahu HaMelech [King Hezekiah]. His presence in Damascus was no accident but rather a Divine mission.”
In addition to Vital’s tomb in Damascus, scores of apocryphal stories circulate in the haredi world about rabbis whose graves are imbued with supernatural powers.
“One of the most revered graves in Eretz Yisrael is that of Rabbi Chaim ben Attar, the author of the Ohr Hachayim commentary on the Torah,” wrote Hoffman.
“Thousands of Jews come to this grave on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on the 15th of the Hebrew month of Tammuz, the day he passed away in 5503 (1743), to pray for heavenly aid in the merit of this sainted Torah scholar and kabbalist.
Mass desecration
“During the period of Jordanian control of the Mount of Olives cemetery between 1948 and 1967, there was mass desecration of the Jewish graves. The Arabs even decided to build a road through this ancient cemetery which would pass directly over the grave of the Ohr Hachayim.
“When the bulldozer came within inches of the grave, however, something strange happened. The engine sputtered and died.
Another attempt the following day failed in a more spectacular way. As the bulldozer rushed toward the grave at full speed, it suddenly flipped over and plunged into the adjoining Valley of Kidron, killing its driver.
“The Arabs thereupon abandoned their plans for desecrating this holy grave and rerouted their road to pass much higher on the mountainside. Visitors to the grave can clearly see how the original clearing went straight in the direction of the Ohr Hachayim’s grave.”
Equally gripping is the apocryphal story of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhazeira (1806–1880) – the grandfather of the miracle worker the Baba Sali.
Known as the Abir Yaakov, the saintly rabbi fell ill in Egypt while en route from Morocco to the Holy Land. He asked to be buried where he was dying, in the village of Damityo, three kilometers south of the Nile delta city of Damanhur, rather than be interred in Alexandria’s Jewish cemetery.
Some Jews connect Abuhazeira’s merit with the Allies’ victory against field marshal Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in 1942 during World War II’s pivotal Battle of El Alamein.
As he lay dying in 1880, Abuhazeira was said to have had a vision of Spitfires and Messerschmitt Bf 109s – airplanes had not yet been invented – engaged in aerial dogfights above the Egyptian desert. In his merit, according to believers, the Axis armies were turned back at the gates of Israel.
As history folds into myth and myth bleeds into the present, the desecration of Rabbi Vital’s tomb serves as a haunting reminder that in Damascus – as in much of the region – the battle over sacred memory is far from over.■