Baba Elazar’s Discreet Ohel Visit

By COLlive reporter

Israeli kabbalist Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira, who was murdered last week in his yeshiva, discreetly visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s gravesite a year ago.

Kfar Chabad Magazine reports that the “Baba Elazar” came to the Old Montefiore cemetery in Cambria Heights, Queens, to pray at the Rebbe’s Ohel.

Characterized by his intense modesty (he wore a hood to shield his eyes from impure sights), the Sephardic rabbi was said to have asked to remain alone during the prayers.

He arrived at 3 AM and remained in the Ohel for close to an hour, the report said.

Two members of the Chabad Beis Din in Israel, Rabbi Yitzchok Yehuda Yeruslavsky of Kiryat Malachi and Rabbi Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi of Kfar Chabad came to the shiva.

Rabbi Abuchatzeira was the grandson of Rabbi Yisrael Abuchatzeira, the Moroccan Jewish leader and Kabbalist known as the “Baba Sali” who had close ties to the Rebbe.

On Tuesday, a Lubavitcher chossid told COLlive.com that he remembers the slain rabbi learning in the Chabad yeshiva in Morocco 48 years ago.

Rabbi Saadya Dahan, a resident of Kiryat Malachi, said: “As a bochur, Rabbi Elazar was very friendly and cared about people. I was in a grade above him and had many conversations with him about the Rebbe and Eretz Yisrael.”

Dahan added that the rabbi, like many in the school, had a sincereity and pureness to him that was visible in his demeanor.

“He brother, Rabbi Dovid Abuchatzeira of Nahariya once told me that his brother knew the whole Tanya by heart,” referring to the central text of Chabad Chassidism written by the Alter Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.

During the shiva at Baba Elazar’s yeshiva in Beer Sheva, a Tanya was printed in his memory by Rabbi Leibel Zeintz of Brazil, a personal friend of Rabbi Dovid.

Present at the printing were Chabad Shluchim and chassidim of Beer Sheva.