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 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
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, Yechezkel Abramsky
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Baba Sali’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
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Works
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