(From "Bygone Days -- 1870-1900, pp. 361-2)
Late one night in Nachalas Shiva, the stillness was suddenly
shattered by startling noises. Abruptly awoken, Yosef Rivlin
sat up in bed and bent his head towards the window. The
spring air rippled across his face. Listening carefully, he
realized that he was hearing the sound of men and animals
jostling around. Fully alert now, he carefully peered
outside. In the darkness, he discerned a large number of
silhoutted figures approaching Nachalas Shiva with a herd of
horses or mules.
His mind reeled when he heard one of the leaders call out,
"Remember! Slaughter them all, and then take the storehouse
of lumber!"
Rav Rivlin was not the only one who had heard the commotion
outside. "Yosef! Yosef!" called one of his neighbors as he
burst into Rav Rivlin's house. "What should we do?"
Within seconds, another three or four neighbors stood
breathlessly at his door.
Yosef Rivlin, the founder of Nachalas Shiva, stood transfixed
for a moment. "We have no choice," he whispered in a calm but
serious voice. "The danger is so great and imminent, I must
take advantage of spiritual weapons."
Everyone knew that Rav Yosef had received special kabbalistic
formulas from his grandfather, Rav Moshe Rivlin, who had in
turn received them from his father, Rav Hillel Rivlin, who
had gotten them directly from his mentor, the Vilna Gaon.
The enemy was only a minute away from the locked entrance to
Nachalas Shiva. Dozens of Bedouins with clubs, daggers and
guns were on the warpath. The lives of close to fifty
families, including women and children, were at stake.
Rav Rivlin reached for his gun and his shofar. He
stood by the window and concentrated deeply for several long
seconds. Then he took the ram's horn to his lips and sounded
the shofar notes blown on Rosh Hashanah. As he took a
second breath, he fired a shot blindly in the dark and then
blew again. T'ru t'ru t'ru Crack!... T'ru t'ru
t'ru...
The Bedouins were terrified. "Run for your lives!" one
shouted hysterically. "The Jews are killing us!" screamed
another.
With the angel of death at their heels, they dashed away into
the blanket of night.
Rav Yosef and some of the braver settlers went outside to
investigate. Amazed, they found tens of mules and all types
of weapons strewn on the ground. Not far away they heard the
groans of an injured Bedouin. He had fallen down and been
trampled, and lay gasping in pain with a broken leg.
They took the man prisoner and questioned him. He withheld
nothing. "After killing everyone, we were going to steal all
the lumber and carry it home on the mules."
"Who was behind the scheme?"
"Some [Arab] landlords in the [Old] city promised us all the
wood as a reward for killing everyone."
"This time," said Rav Rivlin to his comrades, "the L-rd was
with us. Let us pray that the fear which the A-mighty put
into them will keep them away from us forever."
(Mosad HaYesod, pp. 197-198)
