The name “Abuchatzeira” is a well-known name in the Jewish world. One of the first things that come to the mind of anyone who has heard this name is the word “miracles”! Another word is “Kabbalah”. They are known for both… The story of the Abuchtazeira family goes back in time to the late 1500’s, the early 1600’s…
The greatest of the modern Kabbalists, Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (1534-1572) known as the holy Arizal had a student who over the course of less than two years studied practically everything we know of the secrets of Torah known to our generation today. Of course, there were other well-known Kabbalists such as Rabbi Avraham Abulafia (1240-1295 – or thereabouts), but it would ultimately be the Ari’s teachings that would gain the popularity of the masses. Indeed, for a full understanding of the teachings of Kabbalah, one may well wish to pursue the teachings of the other outstanding Kabbalists, but practically speaking, one will gain far more by attaching oneself to the Ari first. In his path, there is a measure of safety. Thereafter, the sky is the limits – as they say. But more about all that in other posts!
The Ari’s most special disciple was Rabbi Chaim Vital (1543-1620). It was to him that the entire corpus of the Ari’s teachings was given over and for him to assemble into a systemised text for all to study. With a few thousand pages of mystical material, there is enough to keep one going for years!
In those days, there was a man by the name of Rabbi Shmuel Elbaz. He was a student of Rabbi Chaim Vital. In those days, lacking fast payment facilities like Paypal, when struggling communities were in need of funds – just to survive – a member of the community would take a trip via the sea to a richer community much further away. Because it was a real mission to do, it wasn’t always easy to find representatives ready to make the long arduous journey. In such cases, the community would get together and make their selection by chance.
A member of the community would hold a number of straws of different sizes in their hand. At the top, all straws looked the same and it was impossible to know which was the longer and which the shorter. They would make a deal that whoever would select the shortest straw would be the representative to raise money for the community. Upon selecting the straw on this particular occasion, it was Rabbi Shmuel Elbaz who selected the shortest one, and he was thereby automatically chosen to travel the seas in search of raising funds for the struggling community of which he belonged.
Rabbi Elbaz was a poor man and he lacked even the funds to travel on the next ship. He approached the captain and asked if he could travel with them. The captain replied in the negative. Rabbi Elbaz asked if he could stay in one of the small storage rooms. He even offered the captain with his service of cleaning the ship as a means of payment. The captain refused. Rabbi Elbaz took out a mat that he had packed with him and laid it out on the sea. The mat floated. Rabbi Elbaz sat upon the mat which then floated next to the ship for the entire journey. When the captain saw the now-righteous-man on the sea next to him, he offered him a free ride! Rabbi Elbaz declined.
From then onwards, Rabbi Shmuel Elbaz was known as Rabbi Shmuel Abuchatzeira – the words Abu Chatzeira meaning “father of the mat” – and this name has stuck for all his descendants.
Just a few generations later, Rabbi Yaakov Abuchatzaira was born. He became known as the Abir Yaakov because of his greatness in Torah learning and his power to perform miracles. He would study 18 chapters of Mishnah off by heart every day – but that is really just the tip of the iceberg for his study routine. He was a holy man.
His eldest son, Rabbi Massoud Abuchatzeira – a great Tzaddik and mystic in his own right, became the father of the well known Baba Sali – Rabbi Yisrael Abuchatzeira. Baba Sali was perhaps the most well-known of the Abuchatzeira family because of his holiness and the miracles which he performed on a daily basis! One such miracle included his covering a bottle of Arak and continuing to pour from it for all his guests when hosting various hillulot (anniversary of the death of a Tzaddik) and similar such holy occasions. But again – this was just a nice cherry on the cake in comparison to his level of holiness and his service towards God.
There were many other great people within the Abuchatzeira family – the other sons of the Abir Yaakov most notably. Then there was also Baba Sali’s two brothers and his eldest son – Rabbi Meir (Baba Meir). Baba Meir had ten children – five sons and five daughters. The eldest son Rabbi Elazar (Baba Elazar) was murdered a few years ago. His second son – Rabbi Dovid Chai Abuchatzeira is a Rosh Yeshiva in Nahariya and is responsible for the stories in this two-volume book. In the book, he shares with us much more about the lives of many other of the members of the Abuchatzeira family.
This work is truly compelling and one feels that one cannot put the book down until he has finished reading the entire two volumes! I personally love the stories and were it not for the fact that I must live in my own world or reality – I could sit back and read these stories again and again wishing and hoping to be a part of the illustrious Abuchatzeira family – living a life filled with miracles, Torah and service of God.
I hope you’ll get a chance to read these two beautiful books too. They may even help to encourage you further on your own journey to acquiring an even closer relationship with God.
