A strike from the Heavens against someone who harmed Rashbi’s tziyun

The War of Independence, 5708 (1948). The soldiers of the 7th Armored Brigade, who were fighting
in northern Israel, prepared to capture the Arab village of Meron.
Rabbi Yaakov Tannenbaum was a young fighter in the brigade. He was born in Tornaľa in Slovakia in
5684 (1923), a descendant of a famous rabbinical family. As a boy he was sent to yeshiva in Paks,
Hungary, and merited being a chavrusa of the Erlauer Rebbe. He lost most of his family during the
Shoah, and he himself was saved with great miracles from the camps.
After the war ended, he sailed on the ma’apilim (“illegal” immigrant) ship, The Exodus. The British
sent it back to Cyprus, and from there to Germany. In early Iyar 5708 (May 1948), Tannenbaum
succeeded in reaching Palestine, and was conscripted into the army. Now, together with his
comrades in the 7th Armored Brigade, they prepared to capture the Arab village of Meron, with the
grave of the holy Tanna, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai at its edge.
They were fearful that the Arabs might have harmed Rashbi’s kever, and wondered how it had
survived their attacks. However, there was a great surprise in store for them.
When they reached Meron, they discovered that the Arabs had already run away, before the army
even came.
They hurried to Rashbi and when they entered the tziyun of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, they were
delighted to see that the Arabs had not harmed the holy place, although they did find that the edge
of his matzeivah was broken and damaged.
When talking to the captives it was discovered that the Arabs had tried to destroy the tombstones of
Rashbi and his son, Rabbi Elazar.
The Arab who hit the tziyun first began to scream in pain. His friends panicked and the destruction
stopped.
The Jewish soldiers tried to find a stone to complete the matzeivah. When they found a stone, they
realized that it was the piece which had been broken off and thrown outside. The piece was restored
to its place and it can still be identified, on the edge of the tombstone of the tziyun in Meron.