Once, Rabbi Yisrael Abuchatzeira, the Baba Sali had an apartment in Jerusalem. He lived in Netivot in southern Israel but on Thursday Baba Sali would go to Jerusalem to his apartment to mourn over the exile of the Divine Presence. He explained to one of his close stucents that he goes into exile to Jerusalem once a week to share in the exile of G-d’s Divine Presence that is still in exile until the rebuilding of the Temple.
A group of thieves kept track of the Rabbi’s apartment and found that it was always empty on Thursdays. So one Thursday they broke into the apartment and started emptying all of the apartment’s valuables into large sacks. They took money, a set of gold tableware and other valuables. However when they wanted to leave they couldn’t find the door.
“What’s going on?” They were shocked! “There was a door here just before!” They ran their hands along the wall looking for the door and they rubbed their eyes to make sure they were seeing correctly. They could not find a door…
They didn’t know that G-d blinded their eyes concealing the door from them as punishment for their attempting to steal from the Baba Sali.
A few hours later a key was heard in the door and it opened. The Baba Sali came home accompanied by his students. They saw the thieves and he told them; “You are looking for nothing! You will not leave the house until every single thing is put back in its place!”
The thieves understood they were dealing with a holy man and quickly started putting everything they took back in its place. However when they looked for the door it still wasn’t there.
The Baba Sali looked hard at them and said: “It must be you still didn’t return everything!”
They cried, “We did return everything!”
“Look in your pockets” Baba Sali told them. One thief took a golden spoon out of his pocket. The Baba Sali commanded, “Put it back in its draw”.
The thief ran to do it and suddenly the door appeared to them. They ran out as fast as they could.
