Over 100,000 at Hilula of Baba Sali

Over 100,000 people jammed the tziyun of Harav Yisrael Abuchateira, zt”l, the Baba Sali, on the occasion of his 32nd yahrtzeit Wednesday night and Thursday. The tziyun is located in the southern Israeli town of Netivot. Roads were closed throughout the region, as tens of thousands of cars and buses were directed to large parking lots outside the town, with shuttle buses bringing those attending as close to the site as possible.

The Baba Sali is considered one of the greatest spiritual leaders of Sephardic Jewry in the past century. He was born in Morocco and came to Israel in 1969, at the age of 70.

The event was attended by Israel’s Chief Rabbis, Harav Yitzchak Yosef and Harav David Lau, as well as many Roshei Yeshivah, community Rabbanim, and askanim from both the Sephardic and Ashkenazic chareidi and observant communities.

Renowned for his wisdom and breadth of knowledge in both Toras hanigleh and Nistar, the Baba Sali influenced hundreds of thousands to do teshuvah during a period when Jews who came to Israel from Middle Eastern countries were undergoing a process of secularization. His influence prompted many to return to the traditional ways of their forefathers, the Torah culture that had pervaded Sephardic Jewry for centuries until the modern era.