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(872 words)

Author(s): Oren Kosansky
A hillula (pl. hillulot) is the anniversary of the death of a Jewish saint, known in Hebrew as a ṣaddiq (righteous individual) or a qadosh (holy man). The term, which in Aramaic means “wedding,” is used especially in North African contexts. It is generally traced to the Zohar, where it is used in reference to the demise of Rabbi Simeon Bar Yoḥay and is interpreted as indicating the marriage of his soul with the Divine. As such, the hillula represents the enduring life of a saint’s soul rather than the mortal death of his or her body. Given Bar Yoḥay’s standing as the puta…

Azugh, David Ben Barukh ha-Kohen

(285 words)

Author(s): Oren Kosansky
David Ben Barukh ha-Kohen Azugh (d. 1760) is a key figure in a renowned Moroccan saintly line that traces its ancestry as a primogeniture back to the high priests of the First Temple (see Barukh Kohen Azugh). David Ben Barukh, who lived in the southern region of Morocco, is said to have performed many miracles during his lifetime and after his death. The appellation Azugh is understood in at least two ways. By one account, it derives from a Berber word meaning “great.” Another interpretation holds that it is an acronym for the categories of women u…

Pilgrimages and Pilgrimage Rituals, Saints' Tombs in the Modern Period

(2,453 words)

Author(s): Oren Kosansky
Pilgrimages (Ar. ziyārāt, visits) involve a constellation of rituals organized primarily around visitation to the tombs of saints (Heb./Jud.-Ar. addiqim), holy men and women  whose presence and powers are held to remain vital after their earthly death. Controversy over pilgrimage has not entirely threatened these rituals, which are grounded in canonical Jewish practice and continue to have relevance. In the modern period, Jewish pilgrimage to saints’ tombs has been situated at the intersection of two opposing developments. On the one hand, as post-Enl…

Pinto, Ḥayyim

(297 words)

Author(s): Oren Kosansky

Azugh, Barukh Kohen (Barukh al-Kabīr)

(269 words)

Author(s): Oren Kosansky

David u-Moshe

(412 words)

Author(s): Oren Kosansky
David u-Moshe (David son [Berb. u-] of Moses) belongs to the category of sainted Moroccan rabbis ( ṣaddiqim) whose graves became national and transnational pilgrimage destinations in the twentieth century. His hagiographic biography follows a typical pattern that identifies the saint as a rabbinical emissary ( shadar or meshullaḥ) who came to Morocco to raise funds for his yeshiva in Jerusalem. David u-Moshe’s appearance in southern Morocco, according to alternative narrative versions, took place either 900 or 250 years ago, but most accounts…

Solomon Bel-Ḥensh

(303 words)

Author(s): Oren Kosansky
As is common in Jewish Morocco, the name Solomon Bel-Ḥensh (Shlomo ben l’Ḥensh) refers to both a sainted rabbinic figure ( ṣaddīq) and the shrine that marks his burial place. Nothing is known of the saint’s life beyond the tradition that he arrived in Morocco some five hundred years ago as a rabbinical emissary (Heb. meshullaḥ or shadar) from the Holy Land (a common motif for a saint’s origin). As with many Moroccan Jewish saints, his power is associated with a wild animal. Ḥensh is the Arabic word for snake, and accordingly many hagiographic narratives revolve around the rabb…

Abuḥaṣera (Abiḥaṣera) Family

(484 words)

Author(s): Oren Kosansky

Holy Shrines - Conceptual

(1,580 words)

Author(s): Oren Kosansky
The basic notion behind holy shrines—that even given the divine omnipresence in the world there are places where this immanence is more palpable—has deep roots in the history of Judaism. The Tabernacle, the Temple, and the Torah are all recognized in the most formative of Jewish legal and mystical texts as physical markers of intensified sacred dwelling. The specific features connected with Jewish holy shrines in the Islamic world likewise find precedents in canonical Jewish sources. The associat…