Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, also known as the Abir Yaakov and Abu Hasira (1806–1880), was a leading
Moroccan-Jewish rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...
of the 19th century, son of the patriarch of the
Abu Hasira/Abuhatzeira family, R. Samuel.
Biography
In 1879, Abuhatzeira left his native
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...
and embarked on a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land
The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...
via Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. While passing through the Egyptian Nile Delta city of
Damanhour, he grew ill and died.
He was buried in Damanhour, where his tomb has become a site of pilgrimage to this day.
Pilgrimage
Every year on the 19th of
Tevet a ceremony is held at his tomb in Egypt, often attended by hundreds of devotees,
[ many travelling from Israel. The tomb is an official antiquity site protected by the government of Egypt. Some Egyptians have protested against permitting Israeli pilgrims to enter Egypt to make the annual pilgrimage to Rabbi Abuhatzeira's tomb. In 2012, the Egyptian foreign ministry told Israel that it would not be "appropriate" for Israeli pilgrims to make an annual visit to the tomb of Rabbi Abuhatzeira. Gamal Heshmat of the ]Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( '), is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic studies, Islamic scholar and scho ...
said that activists planned to stage sit-ins and other protests to block the route to pilgrims. Activists are against "normalization" of relations with Israel. An Egyptian court permanently banned a Jewish celebration that has taken place since the 1979 peace deal with Israel and asked the government to remove the tomb where it takes place from a list of official shrines, judicial sources said on 29 December 2014. The court said its decision was due to "moral offenses" committed in previous years at the three-day festival celebrating the birth of Rabbi Jacob Abu Hasira. It did not elaborate on what the offenses were.
[Jerusalem Post Egyptian Court ban Jews from visiting Jewish Mystic's Grave. 12/29/14 http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Egyptian-court-bans-Jews-from-visiting-Jewish-mystics-grave-386059]
Descendants
He is the grandfather of Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, also known as the Baba Sali, a revered rabbi and kabbalist whose tomb in Netivot
Netivot ( he, נְתִיבוֹת, "''paths''", ar, نتيڤوت) is a city in the Southern District of Israel located between Beersheba and Gaza. In , it had a population of .
History
Netivot was founded in 1956 and named after the bible: " ...
is one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Israel.[
]
References
External links
Stories of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira
1806 births
1880 deaths
19th-century Moroccan rabbis
Yaakov
Egypt–Israel relations
Kabbalists
People from Tafilalt
Sephardi rabbis
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