New Picture Book Tells the Mysterious Tale of Talmud-Era Rabbi

In 2009, Mitch Pilcer was doing construction on his bed-and-breakfast in Tzippori, an ancient city in the Lower Galilee in Israel, when he stumbled upon tombs. One of the tombs was inscribed with the words “Here is the tomb of Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Levi.”

Pilcer was intrigued, and he soon learned Rabbi Ben Levi’s fascinating story. He was part of the first generation of Amoraim, the sages who interpreted the Mishnah after Rabbi Judah ha-Nassi put it together and edited it. Also known as the Ribal, Ben Levi would learn Torah with the Prophet Elijah and speak with the souls of prior sages who had passed on. When an infectious disease struck his town and people were avoiding the sick, the Ribal visited them and taught them Torah because he believed it was the best cure for their ailments. He also wrestled with the Angel of Death and came out victorious, and when he died, he went into the afterlife while he was still alive.

Now Pilcer, in collaboration with renowned artist Avi Katz, has released a new picture book titled “The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi.” It contains Katz’s original mosaic paintings, which are accompanied by a poem about the Ribal’s encounter with the Angel of Death, written by nineteenth-century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and quotations from the original Aramaic Talmud text.

“The whole adventure of the rabbi and the Angel of Death occurred because of the plague of Tzippori 1,750 years ago,” said Pilcer in an interview with the Journal. “When you read this story in the Talmud, the sages are talking about what you can do to avoid the plague, which is relevant to today. One rabbi says you can’t be in the same village [as the infected] or get fruits and vegetables from them. They even give you this Talmudic recipe for medicine to get rid of the plague. Then you get to Rabbi Ben Levi, and he says he meets the people who have the plague and teaches them Torah because it protects them.”

Pilcer, who is an artist, wanted to create a mosaic that showed the epic battle of the rabbi and the Angel of Death. He wasn’t happy with his sketches, so he contacted Katz, whom Pilcer said is “the best illustrator in Israel.” The two worked together on the mosaic, and afterwards, Pilcer found the poem by Longfellow in The Atlantic, a publication that the poet had co-founded.

“Avi understood the potential right away,” said Pilcer. “It was perfect for a picture book, and he started doing the drawings. The poem is naturally divided into 12 stanzas, so Avi made an illustration of each. We then brought it to a publisher, Geffen, and they were excited about it right away.”

“The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi” is marketed as an art book and a children’s book. When people visit Pilcer’s bed-and-breakfast, which is called Zippori Village Country Cottages, they can give a donation of 50 shekels, or $14, and receive the book in return. “I sell a lot of copies of the book here, because one of the traditions when you visit a holy site is to give charity,” he said.

When Pilcer, who made aliyah from New York in 1978, discovered the tombs, he went through a long legal battle with the Israel Antiquities Authority to keep it on his property. He said they wanted to put it in a museum, but he argued that they couldn’t disturb a grave for no reason. If that precedent was set, what would stop them from taking anyone’s grave and putting it wherever they wanted?

“We understood at the beginning that it was a special place, and we would do everything we could to protect it,” he said.

Today, people can stop by Pilcer’s bed-and-breakfast and see the rabbi’s tomb for free. He keeps it open at all times, and sometimes visitors come in the middle of the night to light candles and leave notes and requests.

Over the last 25 years that Pilcer and his family have lived in Tzippori, he’s felt like the rabbi has been protecting them. “We thought we would watch over him, and he’d watch over us,” he said. “Thank G-d we’re happy and we make a good parnassah, whether it’s from hard work or whether it’s from someone who is watching over us and helping us.”

Kylie Ora Lobell is a writer for the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, The Forward, Tablet Magazine, Aish, and Chabad.org and the author of the first children’s book for the children of Jewish converts, “Jewish Just Like You.”