There was a seething undercurrent of violence in the Samarian village of Awarta as a tight ring of Arab youths began to surround the two Jews who had entered their town. It seemed certain that a lynch was imminent.

The younger Jew was deathly pale with fear. But the older man clad in khaki pants a faded black shirt and beret didn’t seem to notice the trouble brewing as he walked undisturbed to his destination — the graves of Aharon HaKohein’s sons Elazar and Isamar and the 70 zkeinim — as if he was taking a stroll in Jerusalem’s Meah Shearim.

“Reb Yosef they want to kill us! Don’t you see?”

And indeed the Arab youths were approaching armed with pieces of metal and clubs that left no doubt about their intentions.

“Have no fear” said Reb Yosef. He then began to roar and charged in the direction of the Arab youths who began to shriek in terror and flee for their lives. Within less than a minute not a single one of the would-be attackers remained.

Reb Yosef Dayan continued to the gravesite and calmly conducted his regular order of prayers and tikunim. When he and his student left the village dozens of youths watched them go but not one of them dared to lay a finger on the Jewish visitors.

The two then went to the grave of Yonasan ben Uziel arriving just before nightfall. This was 40 years ago when Amuka was a desolate grave in an open valley surrounded by a thick forest crawling with wild animals. The young man turned to Reb Yosef and said “Rebbi soon it will be dark. It’s dangerous to be here at night.”

“It will be on my shoulders” Reb Yosef responded. “Nothing bad will happen to us.”

They learned and davened together for several hours. Just before midnight the student heard some rustling sounds and peering into the darkness saw a number of bright circles — eyes of hyenas — approaching with measured steps. The student began to count the pairs of eyes but his heart sank and he stopped counting after he had reached ten.

There was no question that the hyenas which had jaws strong as steel and teeth sharp as swords were hungry. Certain that the hyenas would tear him to shreds the terrified student let out a heartrending cry.

“What happened?” Reb Yosef asked.

“Hyenas” the student said pointing to the eyes peering at them in the darkness.

Reb Yosef remained unfazed. “Have no fear. I will perform a few hakafot around the gravestone and everything will be all right.”

Reb Yosef circled the ancient stone and the hyenas began to retreat in fear until they had disappeared completely.

“How did you do that?” the student blurted.

“An old Bedouin once asked me how it was that I walked around in this area at night without any fear of the wolves. ‘I know that there are wolves here’ the Bedouin claimed ‘because every night a lamb disappears from my herd.’

“I asked him to bring me a new pocketknife. He obeyed and I performed a segulah for protection that is quoted in the sefer Shorshei HaSheimos [which was printed from a handwritten manuscript from Yemen] and in the sefer Ha’Egoz attributed to Rabbi Shalom Shabazi.

“From that day on not a single lamb ever went missing from his sheep. The Bedouin saw that the pocketknife was a segulah and he began walking around fearlessly with the knife in his pocket to the astonishment of all his friends.”

In the morning Reb Yosef told his student “I would like to conduct a special tikun in a cave near Moshav Dalton the cave of the Bavliim where the great Amoraim Rabbah bar Huna Rav Hamnuna Rav Chananel and others are buried.”

“I can’t go on” the young student exclaimed. “This is just too difficult for me. I’m going to Meron. We’ll meet there tomorrow after you conclude your tefillos.”

The next day Reb Yosef appeared in Meron wheezing having contracted bronchitis from spending an entire night in the half-frozen cave. An ordinary man would have needed a dose of antibiotics and a few days in bed in order to recover. Reb Yosef drank a cup of warm milk and immediately returned to health.

A few days later the talmid met with another hidden tzaddik Reb Yosef Waltuch ztz”l and told him about the two incidents in which his life had been spared. “I was not psychologically capable of joining Reb Yosef in the cave of the Bavliim ” the talmid added.

Reb Yosef Waltuch replied “That’s a shame. I have traveled with Reb Yosef Dayan countless times to the most dangerous places and I was never frightened or harmed when I was with him. I attribute it to the fact that Reb Yosef has never allowed his innate kedushah to be blemished. I have heard secrets of the Torah from him that I never heard from any man.”

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