Orthodox Pilgrimage To The Grave Of Kabbalah Rabbi Buried In Istanbul Picks Up After COVID Slump

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ISTANBUL (JTA) — Dozens of Orthodox Jews gathered on a hill overlooking the Bosphorus Strait.

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Above them, guarding the hilltop, stood a Turkish military base, and below sat the swanky Istanbul neighborhood of Ortaköy. Dominating the view was the 15th of July Martyrs Bridge, which connects Europe and Asia. On the Asian side of the Strait loomed the massive Çamlica Mosque.

None of those sites were of interest to the crowd, however. The hill also contains one of Istanbul’s main Jewish cemeteries, and those gathered — who came from Turkey, the United States and Israel — were there to pay their respects on the yahrzeit, or death anniversary, of Rabbi Naphtali HaKohen Katz, an influential and prolific 17th-century rabbi who was devoted to Jewish mysticism.

Pilgrimages like this one, made by Orthodox groups of varying sizes to the grave sites of similarly revered Jewish figures across Europe, are far from uncommon and have spawned a cottage travel industry. Among the largest and most publicized is the annual pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine, which brings tens of thousands to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov each Rosh Hashanah (not on the anniversary of his death). Another involves the grave of Rabbi Elimelech Weisbaum, an early Hasidic leader, in Lizhensk, Poland, in the early spring.

(David I. Klein)

Yitzhak Friedman, a Hasidic Jew from Lakewood, New Jersey, who is currently studying in Israel, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he and a few friends used the opportunity of Katz’s yahrzeit to rationalize a short trip to Istanbul.

“It was cheap tickets, we heard a lot of great things, so I had a nice jump over for two days,” he said.

Another group of Orthodox women from Israel said they had planned their trip similarly to coincide with the “hilulah” — using the Hebrew word for such a pilgrimage.

Though the pilgrimage to Uman has become a rowdy days-long affair, during which the influx of Orthodox Jews rent out most of the small city’s available apartments and hotel rooms, other pilgrimages, such as the one to Katz’s grave, have a more quiet and introspective atmosphere. The crowd on Tuesday took breaks from praying to eat at the cemetery’s synagogue, passing around whiskey and snacks.

The Jewish cemetery where Katz is buried offers a hilltop view of the city. (David I. Klein)

Friedman said he had heard that a visit to Katz’s grave had helped people with various things, from finding “the right match” to having kids have kids to being cured from a sickness. He asked simply for “happiness” in his prayers.

He also attributed some of the effects of the grave to the fact that it is visited less than the one in Uman.

“It’s known that a tzaddik that very few people come to, his powers are much bigger,” Friedman said.

Another of the pilgrims, a Hasidic man from the Doroger sect in Bnei Brak, Israel, explained that he was a distant descendent of Katz, and that, though he was coming for the first time, he came to accompany his father who had been making the trip for 50 years.

Katz was born in 1649, in what is today Ostrovo, Ukraine, and at the age of 14 he was captured and sold into slavery by Tatars, a Turkic muslim group in Crimea and other parts of Southern Ukraine. But he escaped years later and returned to Ostrovo to become the community’s rabbi, later transferring to Posen in modern-day Poland, where he became a scholar of Kabbalistic literature.

But his struggles would not end with the Tatars. Later in life, Katz was called to Frankfurt, in today’s Germany, to serve the community there. When a fire broke out in the city in 1711, he was accused of using kabbalistic charms to stop it from being extinguished by natural means and imprisoned by the local leadership.

Upon his release, he fled to Prague — where he quarreled with another Kabbalah teacher devoted to Shabbetai Zevi, a false messiah — and later Wroclaw.

In past years, as many as 300 people at a time have visited the Istanbul cemetery. (David I. Klein)

After a life filled with struggle in Europe, Katz tried to emigrate to the holy land but only made it as far as Constantinople, where he died in 1718, and was buried by the local Jewish community in the Ortaköy Cemetery.

Ever since, the grave has been a site of pilgrimage, explained Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, an Istanbul rabbi affiliated with the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement — and another distant descendent of Katz’s — who helped in the restoration of the grave in 2005.

“Throughout the ages some great rabbis have allegedly made the pilgrimage,” Chitrik said, including the Baal Shem Tov — the founder of the Hasidic Judaism — Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and others.

“I have accompanied great rabbis who came anonymously to pray at his grave,” Chitrik added. “Some fly in for a day on private jets and leave.”

While some people come throughout the year, the most popular time to come is Katz’s yahrzeit, the 24th of Tevet on the Hebrew calendar. In past years, as many as 300 people came for the occasion, said Albert Elvaşvili, the president of the Ortaköy Jewish community which manages the cemetery.

However, he noted that attendance often rises and falls with the changes in Israeli-Turkish relations, much like general Israeli tourism to Turkey, which reached an all time high this year.

The biggest slump came during the COVID-19 pandemic, with only a handful of pilgrims coming the last two years. Now it seems that the tradition is once more back in force, with several buses of pilgrims from different countries and sects coming throughout the day.

“As relations with Israel and the Jewish people are coming to a better place, I believe there will be many more people coming in, and as Turkey becomes much more attractive for the Jewish and religious traveler, there will be many more opportunities for people to come,” Chitrik said. “Not just to the kever [grave] of Naphtali Katz on the 24th of Tevet, but to Rabbi Chaim Palachi in Izmir, on the 19th of Shevat, next month, and Rabbi Yehudah Rozanes, on the 26th of Nisan, and many other rabbis who are buried here in the important cemeteries of Turkey.”


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13 Comments
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Mr. Cohen
Mr. Cohen
1 year ago

Also, the money they spent on airline travel and hotels would have been better-spent on helping the many impoverished of our people, who struggle to pay rent every month.

Jealous Bob
Jealous Bob
1 year ago

I wish I had so much money and free time on my hands to run all over the world.

Yossie
Yossie
1 year ago

another name that the schnorreriey organization can use
they will daven for you!!!
you know the shpeele

Avrohom Elya
Avrohom Elya
1 year ago

When did our religion become a prayer to the dead – Years ago we went now and then. These days we are there everyday. Or could it be we have too much time on our hands. The one going are not the working type

Mr. Cohen
Mr. Cohen
1 year ago

Praying at the grave of a Rabbi in Turkey cannot be better than praying at the Kotel.

Even if praying at the grave of a Rabbi is better than praying at the Kotel, then why not pray at the graves of Rabbis who are buried in Israel?

Last but not least:
The Arizal warned us to NOT visit a cemetery, except to bury a dead person, as mentioned in Sefer Pele Yoetz, chapter Tumah.

The_Truth
Noble Member
The_Truth
1 year ago

I am pretty sure that most poskim, if not all, say you can not daven to Kevorim & it is Avodah Zarah to daven to tzadikim. We daven to Hashem only. There is some merit to daven at kevrei tzadikim as there is added kedusha there, but there are usually closer places to go to in your own country to daven at, or go to living rabbonim & gedolim who you can go to to ask that they daven for. No need to travel across the world when there are local kivrei tadikim or mekomos kedoshim nearby.