Many Netivot residents believe the situation would be a lot worse if not for the merit of the tzaddikim living and buried in the city

Title: Nestled in Netivot

Location: Netivot, Israel

Document: Collage of newspaper clippings

Time: Late 1980s

A few months ago, a Grad missile landed just a few meters to the east of the Baba Sali’s grave. Several days later, another one exploded just to the west of the compound.… Many Netivot residents believe the situation would be a lot worse if not for the merit of the tzaddikim living and buried in the city.

“More than 50 grad missiles landed in the vicinity of Netivot, with only a few isolated ones exploding in the city itself, causing little damage,” says Netivot resident Rivka. “The tzaddikim are protecting us from the Heavens and preventing a calamity from befalling our town.”

—Ha’aretz, January 2, 2009

Missiles fired from Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in the winter of 2008–09 may have prevented the annual 4 Shevat hilula of the Baba Sali, but the throngs returned the next year and have been increasing ever since. Upon the passing of Rav Yisrael Abuchatzeira (1889–1984), his final resting place in Netivot, Israel, brought large and diverse crowds paying their respects and praying for their spiritual and physical needs. The Negev development town of Netivot was the renowned Moroccan kabbalist’s home for the last 14 years of his long life. But his road to Netivot went past quite a few stations along the way.

Scion to one of the most prestigious Moroccan rabbinical families, Rav Yisrael Abuchatzeira was born in the desert town of Rissani, in the Tafilalet region of eastern Morocco. Having resided in this area rich in Jewish history for centuries, the Abuchatzeira family dominated local rabbinical life. Upon the passing of his father, Rav Masoud Abuchatzeira, in 1908, the 19-year-old Baba Sali succeeded him as rosh yeshivah in Rissani, while his older brother, Rav David, assumed the rabbinate.

During a skirmish between colonial French troops and locals in 1919, Rav David was falsely accused of aiding the French and was publicly executed by local Arabs. Several members of the Abuchatzeira family fled Rissani as a result, among them the Baba Sali, who sought refuge in the small Berber town of Boudenib near the Algerian border in the Atlas Mountains. Though a refugee in exile, he duly reestablished his yeshivah in his new home.

To pursue spiritual growth, especially in the realm of Toras Hanistar, the Baba Sali traveled to Eretz Yisrael in 1922. Studying in the renowned Beit El yeshivah for mekubalim in Jerusalem’s Old City, the Baba Sali added to the kabbalistic knowledge that was his family legacy and that would become the hallmark of his own life and career in the ensuing decades. Following his short stint in Beit El, he returned to Boudenib, where he continued teaching Torah. In 1933 he moved once again to the Old City of Yerushalayim, this time to learn in the esteemed Porat Yosef Yeshivah overlooking the Kosel. Shortly thereafter he again returned to Morocco.

In 1939 he was appointed to the rabbinate in the Sahara oasis town of Erfoud, home to a sizable Jewish community where many Abuchatzeira family members had served in rabbinical positions over the years. He remained in Erfoud until he immigrated to Israel for the third time in 1951. He lived in the Baka neighborhood of Yerushalayim for several years and was even considered a candidate for the chief rabbinate of Israel upon the passing of Rav Ben-Zion Meir Chai Uziel in 1953. For a variety of reasons, he left Israel and moved first to France, then Tunisia, before once again settling in the town of his youth, Rissani.

In 1964, he moved to Israel for the fourth and final time. He initially settled in Yavneh, where he moved in with his son-in-law and nephew, Rav Avraham Abuchatzeira, who served as the local rabbi. But he soon moved to Ashkelon, and in 1970 he settled in Netivot, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Revered by Moroccan Jewry, his wise counsel and blessings were sought by multitudes from across the religious and ideological spectrum. He lived a lifestyle of extreme simplicity in his home and furnishings, often following the custom of Moroccan tzaddikim to fast from Shabbos to Shabbos, and rarely looking up at his surroundings. The Baba Sali welcomed all types of guests to his home. Though they came to pour out their hearts to him, he first insisted on pouring out l’chayims of arak for them, and bade them to pray for Mashiach’s arrival.

The physical grandeur he had shied away from in his own lifetime finally caught up to him following his passing. On the occasion of his first hilula in 1985, a domed structure was constructed over his kever, and a reported 200,000 pilgrims came to pay him homage there. The municipality of Netivot and the Abuchatzeira family invested over NIS 50 million in the kever’s infrastructure and surrounding areas in the late 1980s to accommodate the ever-increasing crowds.

The 1988 hilula brought Chief Rabbi Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, as well as Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir and other dignitaries. Though it’s now four decades since the Baba Sali’s passing, the connection to the great Moroccan sage is stronger than ever at his eternal resting place in Netivot.

Mitzvah Amulets

Though the Baba Sali was famous for living a life of holiness permeated with the study of Kabbalah, he never distributed amulets, but rather insisted that his petitioners accept upon themselves to strengthen their personal mitzvah observance as a merit for the requested salvation. He’d especially emphasize the importance of Shabbos, taharas hamishpachah, and tefillin.

Holy Hilulas

The Baba Sali was known to commemorate many hilulas of tzaddikim throughout the year. Often these were Moroccan tzaddikim of yore with whom the participants were unfamiliar, yet the Baba Sali ascribed great value to the personalities and their teachings. Though he would host the events and distribute refreshments, he himself would continue his custom of fasting. The guests were enjoined to make a l’chayim on arak and recite a piyut in honor of the tzaddik. The holy words of the Moroccan piyutim — often authored by his ancestors of the Abuchatzeira family — would often move the Baba Sali to tears.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 994)