Rabbi Abba Shaul’s Secret: Loving Every Jew Like a Child

One day, a student came to Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul and asked a simple but powerful question: “Rabbi, why are your blessings so effective? So many people have seen miracles after your prayers.”

The Rabbi smiled humbly and said, “Believe me, if I truly believed that my blessings were being fulfilled like that, I’d bring a chair and sit on a busy street corner in Jerusalem, just to bless everyone who walks by.”

But the student insisted. “I’m not just speaking emotionally. These are real stories. One person was seriously ill and got better after your blessing. Another couldn’t have children and now has a family. A third was in a tough court case and was acquitted after you prayed for him. These are facts.”

Then Rabbi Abba Shaul gave an answer that left a lasting impression.

He said, “I’ll tell you the truth. I don’t have any special mystical intentions. I don’t use kabbalistic formulas or secrets. I can only say one thing: for forty years, I have worked on loving every Jew with all my heart. I’ve worked to love every Jew as if they were my own child. I’ve put my whole soul into fulfilling the mitzvah of ‘Love your fellow as yourself’ in the most real way. So that when someone suffers, I feel their pain deep inside me as if it were my own.”

Then the Rabbi explained how this connects to his blessings.

“When a Jew comes to me and shares their pain, I don’t just hear it. I feel it. It pierces my heart. And in Heaven, they say: ‘This person, we decreed suffering for him. But for Rabbi Abba Shaul, we did not.’ In other words, because I carry the burden of that pain personally, it changes things in the Heavenly courts.”

There’s another story that shows just how deep this teaching goes.

Once, someone asked Rabbi Abba Shaul to bless him with a special gift, that his own blessings would also start to come true.

The Rabbi responded gently: “If you want your blessings to have power, love every Jew with all your heart and soul. Then your prayers will rise up and be accepted, just like mine.”

That was the secret of Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul. Not mystical formulas. Not grand gestures. Just a lifetime of simple, genuine love for every fellow Jew. A love that turned his heart into a vessel for compassion, and his prayers into blessings that reached the highest places.