יום חמישי י"ח באדר ב תשפ"ד 28/03/2024
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  • The Mission Continues

    As in the past so it remains today - we were and still are under the selfsame commitment to adhere to the directions of the Gedolei Yisrael, who stand guard against breaches of purity threatening our camp. When we were required to ask – we asked. When we were instructed to depart – we left. The moment we are summoned back to raise the flag, every other consideration is pushed to the side and we answer: We are ready!

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בראי היום

  • Harav Yisrael Friedman zy”a, the Rebbe of Husyatin

    מוטי, ויקיפדיה העברית

    The ancestral chain of Harav Yisrael Friedman, the founder of the Husyatin chassidic court, originates with the holy Baal Shem Tov. The Husyatin chassidus has its roots in Galicia and eventually came to Tel Aviv, during the turbulent years between the two World Wars.

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  • Maccabi'im Gravesite

    In honour of Chanukah, we will discuss a fascinating, ongoing investigation attempting to establish the place of burial of Mattisyahu Kohen Gadol and his family.

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Reflections

Tafilalet

The area of Tafilalet in Morocco has become known and famous in the merit of the dynasty of rabbonim of the Abichatzeira family, who served there as rabbonim, spreading their light out to the whole Jewish world of the east.

Motty Meringer 06/05/2009 10:00
In the desert area of Morocco, in the heart of the great Sahara desert, is situated the area known as Tafilalet. The name strikes a chord in any Jewish heart, in the merit of the famous rabbonim who served there.

The area rose to greatness in the wake of the expulsion from Spain. Many of the Jews expelled from Spain set out to seek a life of tranquillity in the lands of north Africa, a portion of them choosing to settle in Morocco. Among the famous families who were exiled from Geronda was that of Elbaz, and along with other Jewish families who had now become gravely impoverished, they left with just some clothes and material, sifrei kodesh and sifrei Torah, all that remained from all their vast possessions.

The exiles journeyed in the direction of the coastal cities of north Africa and first stopped at the coast of Lilia. After a short stay there, the family joined a large convoy of Spanish exiles who were making their way southwards, with the intention of reaching the large cities of Fez and Safra, where large Jewish communities already existed.

On their way the convoy stopped in the town of Davda, where the local Jews supplied them with all their needs, so that they could continue their journey. They stopped again in Taza, and from there they continued onwards to the city of Safra, located at the foot of the Atlas mountain-range.

The Jewish community of Safra received their exiled brethren warmly with open arms. After several days, when the exiles saw that they had finally reached a place of peace and tranquillity, they decided to remain there to live. The city of Safra was then a trade centre, one of the main hubs of the area. The local Jews traded in cloth, buying from their fellow Jews in Fez and selling to local Arabs. In this way they became prosperous, and so the city was full of chachomim and sofrim who sat and learned day and night. Indeed, owing to the sheer number of talmidei chachomim who were to be found there, Safra earned the title ‘Little Yerushalayim’, as it was known to the Moroccan Jews.

Yet despite the material tranquility that the Spanish exiles found there, arguments started to flare up between them and the veteran residents of Safra. The customs of the Spanish exiles differed considerably from those of the old Moroccan Jews, and there were many differences of opinion as to what was the correct mode of conduct. The focal point of their debates was the matter of shechita. The Spanish Jews were not as stringent as the Moroccans, who were particular to check the lungs by filling them with water after shechita, to detect any perforation, which would then render the animal a treifah. But the Jews from Spain were not accustomed to exercising such stringency, and the matter added much fuel to the fire of their arguments.

When the exiles realised that their differences of opinion with the veteran residents were not fading away, a sizeable group of them decided that they must move on, and they once again took up their staffs of wandering, and set out to locate a more suitable dwelling-place further south. The Elbaz family did not join this group, choosing to remain in Safra.

Months passed and the heat of the arguments did not cool. Then, messengers arrived in Safra, sent from the group who had previously left southwards, extolling the area they had discovered as one of peace and without strife; the area of Tafilalet. The messengers praised the new area to the skies, and attempted to persuade the exiles remaining in Safra to join them there. Most of the exiles were in fact persuaded and left for Tafilalet, including several of the Elbaz family; other members of the Elbaz family did remain in Safra however, and became renowned there also.

One descendant of this famous Elbaz family was Rav Shmuel Elbaz, who became famous as a result of a miracle that occurred with him, due to which the family name was changed to Abichatzeira. Rav Shmuel was born in Yerushalayim and grew up there; later he moved to Tzfas where he learned Torah from Rav Chaim Vital, the talmid of the Ari haKadosh. When Rav Chaim Vital moved to Damascus, Syria Rav Shmuel accompanied him; Rav Chaim was niftar and was buried there.
The miracle that led to the change of name took place when Rav Shmuel wished to travel from Istanbul in Turkey to the port of Yaffo. According to tradition, Rav Shmuel spread out a small mat over the waters, and upon it he sailed across the waves to his destination. After this, the family name was changed from Elbaz to Abichatzeira, which means ‘master of the mat’.

Rav Yaakov Abichatzeira, a descendant of Rav Shmuel who would later be known as the ‘Abir Yaakov’, was born in the year 5566 in the town of Ritzani in the Tafilalet area. His father Rav Masoud was a great talmid chacham and the Av Beis Din in Tafilalet. Rav Yaakov learned from his father and later himself led the kehilla there, and was greatly beloved by its members. On five separate occasions he attempted to emigrate to Eretz Yisrael, but was prevented by the entreaties of his kehilla, who refused to part with him. On his sixth attempt he managed to leave, by promising them that he would leave behind his son Rav Masoud to fill his place. He then set out, travelling through Algeria, Tunisia and Libya; on the seventeeth of Teves he reached the city of Damanhour in Egypt. However, three days after his arrival there, on the twentieth of Teves, Rav Yaakov was niftar and was buried in Damanhour, without ever reaching Eretz Yisrael.

Rav Yaakov’s son, Rav Masoud, led the kehilla in Tafilalet as his father had promised, and was known by them as ‘Saba deMishpatim’. Rav Masoud was the father of Rav Yisrael Abichatzeira, the ‘Baba Sali’, who would later ascend to Eretz Yisrael and settle in Netivot. Rav Masoud was niftar on the twelfth of Iyar in the year 5668 and was buried in Ritzani, where his kever is located until today.

After the petira of Rav Masoud, his eldest son, Rav David, took over the leadership of Tafilalet. Rav David separated himself entirely from all worldly matters and his new position of leadership was a great hardship for him; therefore, after a year as leader, he divided his duties between several of his relatives. His uncle Rav Yitzchak took over the financial leadership of the yeshiva; his cousin Rav Eliyahu undertook to represent the community before the local government; and his younger brother Rav Yisrael, the ‘Baba Sali’, who was then all of eighteen years of age, became Rosh Yeshiva. After thus having divested himself of all his duties, Rav David secluded himself in an attic in his home and devoted himself entirely to limud haTorah, fasting and afflicting himself.

In the year 5677 the French army invaded Morocco and the arabs under the leadership of Mullah Muchamad ben Kassam rebelled against them. After some time the French retreated and Mullah Muchamad crowned himself as the new ruler of Morocco, after having killed the previous royal family. Then, in the year 5680, he issued a decree calling for all the Jews of Morocco to be killed, accusing them falsely of having assisted the French invaders. On Shabbos, the fourteenth of Kislev 5680, soldiers rounded up all the local Jews in the central square, preparatory to their execution. Rav David prayed that the decree be rescinded, requesting that he might himself serve as a sacrifice for the community. Meanwhile, Muchamad’s advisers were attempting to persuade him to abolish the decree and kill only the leaders of the community, since they wished to continue to benefit from the taxes raised from the Jews. Eventually, Muchamad was convinced, and ordered that only Rav David and also the most wealthy local Jews, Rav Yitzchak Simchon and his son David hy’d, be killed.

Mullah Muchamad ordered the captives to be taken to a nearby army camp where they were put into the shaft of a cannon filled with dynamite.

After the execution of Rav David, the arabs refused to return his holy body to the Jews for burial, and Muchamad also forbade the Jews to mourn him. He stationed soldiers around the Jewish quarter to ensure that his orders would be carried out, and so the Jews were forced to conceal their great anguish and grief. Only a number of days later did Muchamad finally relent and release Rav David’s body for burial; the levayah was a quiet affair, taking place under the watchful eyes of the arab authorities, who forbade any of those in attendance to shed even one tear.