The Baba Elazar Court

The story

On Cyprus Street in Neighborhood Heh sat the court of Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira, known by the nickname Baba Elazar. The Abuhatzeira family is a Jewish family of Moroccan origin, of the community that in its time preceded those expelled from Spain in Morocco, and it is among the well-known rabbinic dynasties of Moroccan Jewry. Rabbi Elazar was born in the town of Rissani in the Tafilalt district of Morocco in 1948, the son of Rabbi Meir Abuhatzeira — the “Baba Meir” — and the grandson of Rabbi Israel Abuhatzeira, the Baba Sali. He was orphaned of his mother at a young age, studied at the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva in Casablanca, and in 1966 immigrated to Israel with his father; the family settled in Ashdod. In the country he studied at the Rambam yeshiva in Tel Aviv with Rabbi Avraham Hafuta, who was close to his grandfather, and at the Porat Yosef yeshiva. After the passing of the Baba Sali, Rabbi Elazar established, on his grandfather's charge, a hasidic court here in Beersheba. At that time his relatives established their courts in other places: his brother Rabbi David Hai Abuhatzeira in Nahariya, and his uncle Rabbi Baruch Abuhatzeira in Netivot. Thus Beersheba became one of the cities in which the dynasty continued in the country. To the court people came from all over the country to ask advice and a blessing. On 29 July 2011, 27 Tammuz 5771, Rabbi Elazar was murdered by one of those who sought his advice. He was sixty-two years old.

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