Yafo And The Zionist Colonies: Rabbi Naftali Hertz Halevi And The Siddur HaGra

In 1886, Rabbi Naftali Hertz Halevi was sent from Jerusalem to Yafo. Rabbi Halevi, who had come to the Holy Land from Poland just two years before and even managed to set up a yeshiva ketana in Jerusalem, had originally meant to become one of the leaders of the Jerusalem community. However, in light of the rapid development of the young Jewish community in Yafo – as well as the many agricultural Zionist colonies around it – the rabbis of Jerusalem decided to appoint him as the first rabbi of “Yafo Vehamoshavot (the colonies).” He would bear this title until his death in 1902 at the age of just 49, after which his son-in-law, Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Halevi, would serve in various positions in the rabbinate in Yafo and Tel Aviv for some sixty years.

During his time in Yafo, Rabbi Halevi would have to deal with many new halachic issues: both those regarding mitzvos related to Eretz Yisrael which were now relevant once again, and his complex relationship with the new Jewish communities in the area, who lived a life which was quite distant from his own devout one. But alongside his public service, he also worked on producing a deep and varied corpus of Torah literature. The peak of this activity would appear to be the printing of Siddur HaGra Banigleh Ubanistar (The Gra’s Siddur, Open and Hidden [reference to kaballah]).

Rabbi Halevi’s siddur, printed in Jerusalem and then Yafo in 1895-1898, was effectively the first attempt to create a complete siddur based on the “Gra’s nusach” – a somewhat vague concept which had become a focus of intense and diverse interest since the Gaon’s passing – which would be both Torah and scholarship-based. The choice to focus on this nusach was likely due to the fact that like many in the Ashkenazi community in Eretz Yisrael, Rabbi Halevi also considered himself bound by the Gra’s Torah and as one of its disciplines, in more than one way. His work was based on a particularly rich library he had in his home, which contained antique books and rare manuscripts.

The siddur originally came out in two volumes, numbering a total of 330 pages. Despite Rabbi Halevi’s desire to produce a complete siddur, he ultimately only managed to cover weekdays and Shabbat (alongside berachos). The siddur as a whole was comprised of a number of parts related to both the prayer nusach, halachos related to prayer and its portions (“Likutei HaGra”), and various commentaries on the Gra’s kabbalistic method as he himself understood it and interpreted it (“Imrei Shefer” and “Sha’ar Naftali”).

However, it would seem the most innovative and significant element of the siddur – albeit only in the first part of Shacharis – was the part called “siddur c”y [caf-yod in Hebrew],” which included the Gra’s instructions for kabbalistic kavanos or intentions during prayer. Here, Rabbi Halevi likely relied on a unique manuscript in his possession. The succinct and brief nature of the instructions perfectly matched the Gra’s oeuvre and kabbalistic style – which was largely at variance with that of the Ari – including in the content of the needed kavanos during prayer.

The integration of these unique kavanos – as well as Rabbi Halevi’s own kabbalistic commentaries – turned the siddur into a unique work in and of itself, one with long-term significance. Thus, the siddur was reprinted again in 1972, this time accompanied by comments and additions by Rabbi Seraya Deblitzky, one of the most erudite scholars of the Gra’s nusach and its many twists and turns.

In the last hundred years, many attempts have been made to publish siddurim based on nusach HaGra (some of which I have published elsewhere), as well as to decipher his unique method in matters mystical. Nevertheless, Rabbi Halevi still occupies a special place in this effort, and I myself imagine him finishing his exhausting work serving as Rabbi of Yafo and its surroundings and sitting down to study in his library, with unique books and manuscripts at hand to his left and right.

Originally published on JFeed.com.