יעקב אבוחצירא

Rav Yaakov Abuhatzeira (5566/1806–20 Tevet 5640/1880), the Abir Yaakov, known in English sources also as Abu Hasira, was the rav of Tafilalt in Morocco — mekubal, posek, darshan, and paytan, of the fathers of the Abuhatzeira family and among the greatest rabbanim of Moroccan Jewry. He was born in Tafilalt in eastern Morocco to Rav Masoud, of a family of lofty yichus, ninth generation from Rav Shmuel Elbaz. He learned Tanach with its taamim from his father, then Mishnah and Gemara; after receiving semichah from Rav Yeshua Danino he led the kehillah of Tafilalt as its rav and darshan for decades, and already in his thirties sheilot came to him from the great chachamim across Morocco, some of them printed in the teshuvot of the poskim of his time.

His sons and talmidim left testimony of his avodah: Rav Aharon writes that his father learned eighteen perakim of Mishnah by heart every night, rose for tikkun chatzot, and sat over sifrei Kabbalah until first light, going from there to lead Shacharit; Rav Yitzchak writes that he never spoke idle talk, ate and drank only by measure, and passed most of his days in fasting. Though most of his learning was in Kabbalah, he insisted that a man reach it only through the pshat and the Gemara first — without the Talmud, he wrote, one cannot come to knowledge of the Torah. He was held to be a baal mofet, and tradition tells that he merited giluy Eliyahu; even the Muslims of his land and their notables held him in awe, and he used that standing for the good of the Yidden, walking from place to place to gather tzedakah for aniyim. He left a shelf of sefarim, printed in Yerushalayim from 5643/1883 on: the teshuvot Yoru Mishpatecha LeYaakov, mostly in dinei mamonot; Petuchei Chotam on the Torah by way of the pardes; Machsof HaLavan; Ginzei HaMelech, with 207 explanations of the Torah’s first word; Bigdei HaSerad on the Haggadah by way of Kabbalah; Ma’agalei Tzedek and Alef Binah around Tehillim; and dozens of piyutim for the moadim, gathered in Yagel Yaakov — he was the first of the family to compose piyutim, and his descendants followed him.

He loved Eretz Yisrael and longed to go there; six times he tried, and his kehillah, unwilling to lose him, held him back. Only on the sixth attempt, in 5640/1879, after persuading them that his son Rav Masoud could serve in his place, was he let go. He traveled by way of Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya to Egypt, reached Alexandria in mid-Tevet, and came on 17 Tevet to Damanhur in the Nile Delta, lodging with Rav Moshe Serusi — where he suddenly took gravely ill and was niftar on 20 Tevet 5640. He was buried in Damanhur, and his kever became a place of tefillah and an annual hilula on his yahrzeit. His descendants carried the rabbanut of Tafilalt and beyond; the most famed was his grandson Rav Yisrael Abuhatzeira, the Baba Sali, whose own kever in Netivot draws multitudes, and the yishuv Kochav Yaakov and the Abir Yaakov mosdot carry his name.