Baba Sali
1889 CE–1984 CE · Modern · Rissani
R. Yisrael Abuhatzeira — Baba Sali, 'praying father', 1889-1984 — was the most venerated Moroccan-Mizrachi tzaddik of the 20th century and the grandson of Abir Yaakov. Born in Tafilalt, he served as the spiritual leader of Moroccan Jewry through the trauma of decolonization and mass aliyah, eventually settling in Netivot in 1964 where he became the focal point for North African Israelis.
He published no books — his teaching was oral, intimate, and miracle-centered — but the annual hilula at his Netivot tomb every 4 Shevat draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and is the single largest popular religious gathering in the Sephardic-Israeli calendar. His descendants Baba Meir, Baba Baruch, and Baba Elazar continued the lineage; Baba Sali himself remains the iconic figure of Moroccan-Israeli folk-religious identity.
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Rissani
What they did here
He was born in 1889 in Rissani, in Morocco's Tafilalt region, to a lineage known for rabbinic scholarship and Kabbalah.
In Rissani at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Baba Sali’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Yitzchak Abuchatzeira, Zelig Reuven Bangis, Isser Zalman Meltzer, Yechiel Michel Tukachinsky, Yechiel Michel Tukatchinsky, Yisrael Zev Mintzberg, Tzvi Pesach Frank, Martin Buber, Jacob Nachum Epstein, Mishpetei Uziel, Aharon Rokeach, Dov Berish Weidenfeld, Zalman Sorotzkin, Yaakov Moshe Charlap, Aryeh Levin, Ezra Attia, Yehuda Ashlag, Brisker Rav
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Baba Sali’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Jewish world
- Mordecai Kaplan· 1881 CE–1983 CE
- Rabbi Yechezkel Abramsky· 1886 CE–1976 CE
- Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman· 1886 CE–1976 CE
- Yoel Teitelbaum (Divrei Yoel; founder of Satmar)· 1887 CE–1979 CE
- Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin· 1888 CE–1978 CE
- R. Chaim Meir Hager (Vizhnitz IV)· 1888 CE–1972 CE
- Rabbi Reuven Margolios· 1889 CE–1971 CE
- Tzvi Yehuda Kook (son of Rav Kook)· 1891 CE–1982 CE
- Yaakov Kamenetsky (Emet L'Yaakov)· 1891 CE–1986 CE
- R. Yosef Mashash· 1892 CE–1974 CE
- Yisrael Alter (Beis Yisrael)· 1895 CE–1977 CE
- Rabbi Yaakov Moshe Feldman· 1895 CE–1981 CE
- Rabbi Menachem Mendel Kasher· 1895 CE–1983 CE
- Moshe Feinstein· 1895 CE–1986 CE
- Gershom Gerhard Scholem (founder of academic Kabbalah studies)· 1897 CE–1982 CE
- Saul Lieberman· 1898 CE–1983 CE
- Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky· 1899 CE–1985 CE
- R. Salman Mutzafi· 1900 CE–1974 CE
- Rabbi Chaim Tzvi Taubes· 1900 CE–1966 CE
- R. Yaakov Mutzafi· 1900 CE–1983 CE
- Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz· 1902 CE–1979 CE
- Rabbi Aryeh Leib Malin· 1906 CE–1962 CE
- Yitzchak Hutner (Pachad Yitzchak)· 1906 CE–1980 CE
- Abraham Joshua Heschel (20c.)· 1907 CE–1972 CE
Luminaries & Explorers world
Buddhist world
Hindu world
Scientists
Islamic world
Rulers world
- Puyi (Xuantong Emperor)· 1906 CE–1967 CE
- Jomo Kenyatta· 1894 CE–1978 CE
- Zhou Enlai· 1898 CE–1976 CE
- Sukarno· 1901 CE–1970 CE
- Mao Zedong· 1893 CE–1976 CE
- Haile Selassie I· 1892 CE–1975 CE
- Francisco Franco· 1892 CE–1975 CE
- Edward VIII· 1894 CE–1972 CE
- John F. Kennedy· 1917 CE–1963 CE
- Nikita Khrushchev· 1894 CE–1971 CE
- Lyndon B. Johnson· 1908 CE–1973 CE
- Kwame Nkrumah· 1909 CE–1972 CE
- Chiang Kai-shek· 1887 CE–1975 CE
- Aung San· 1915 CE–1947 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.