The Wonders of Harav Yitzchack Kadouri

292 On Shabbat, the Rav would arrange twelve challot on his table. This custom is written in the Shaar Hakavanot as rep- resenting the twelve loaves of bread which were arranged on the Table in the Holy Temple. Once, during his earlier years when the Rav was living in poverty, he lacked the necessary number of loaves. He asked a neighbor for some left-over matzot, to put in their place. According to works of Kabbalah, the middle four loaves metaphorically s y m - bolize the Four Letter Name of G-d. Every Erev Shabbat, the Rav would read the entire Shir Hashir- im (Song of Songs) , with tremendous concentration and spiritual yearnings. It appeared as if he was completely removed from this world. The story is told how once, two people were embroiled in an argument right next to the Rav while he was saying Shir Hashirim, yet despite the raised decibel level of their voices, the Rav did not hear a thing. The Rav had different cloaks, for all the various occasions, one for each Jewish holiday. He had ones for Shabbat, the three Fes- tivals, the intermediary days of the Festival, Rosh Chodesh, Pu- rim, and for Yom Kippur. The hat he wore was always the same, except for Yom Kippur, which was white and made from fur. The cloak that he wore on Purim was blue. The Rav said that this was in line with the festival, as Mordechai Hatzaddik wore the royal blue when he was honored by the King. The color blue was also signi¿- cant to the Rav, as it symbolizes the Divine attributes of kindness and compassion. When asked about reprinting the prayer book of the Rashash , he told them to bind it with a blue binding. Even a visitor who asked what color car to buy was told blue. This color is also supposed to ward off the evil-eye, as is well known.