Kosher Travel with Fran and David: Morocco Day 4

Day 4

We are now actually on our easyjet flight back to Israel from London having arrived very late last night back in London from Marrakesh.

It was a wonderful trip packed with early morning to late night information and visits to Moroccan Jewry and its holy places.

On Wednesday the last day of our visit, it was another very early start with a 6 am minyan in the lobby of our hotel in the mountain village of Beni Mallal/Afouer. We were on the road by 7:30 heading back to Marrakech. (sounds like an old Crosby Stills & Nash tune).

On arrival in Marrakesh we headed straight to the Mellah and visited a 250 year old shul in the old Jewish Quarter.

It is most interesting to see the reaction of many in the group to the concept of a Jewish Quarter. Many assumed it to be a ghetto. But in fact it was not the same. The king wanted the Jews close to the palace as they were traders and therefore he secured an area within the city walls where they could live securely. Whilst the walls of the city were closed at night, it was not a forced closure on the Jews.

This particular shul has now been restored partially with the assistance of a Canadian Morrocan family and is a historical site. Because the government wants to protect the Jews and make tourism secure, this synagogue had two full time uniformed police officers assigned to it at all times.

The courtyard of the shul has apartments surrounding it which are occupied at no charge by students from USA and uk who come to study Moroccan Jewish history. One of the apartments is occupied by the ou mashgiach in Morocco.

What was amazing was that as we walked the narrow alleyways leading to the shul, we passed numerous residents of the Mellah who were dressed in Arab dress and who almost all greeted us with Boker Tov or Mah Shlomchem. None of us wore kippot as we walked thru these types of areas during our entire visit. Our guide said that he did not want to draw any attention to our group, so he asked all the men to wear hats. Nevertheless almost every local knows Raphy Elmaleh (a real character) and as such when they see him they know the group is Jewish and we get greeted properly. Last year he guided over 27 groups on tours of Morocco, which means that he spent over 50% of the year on the road in various parts of Morocco.

Rabbi Garson spoke in the shul about some of the origins of the Jews of morocco. There were two waves of Jews coming to settle in Morocco. The first was following the churban of the second Temple and the second was in the years following the inquisition in 1492. So Moroccan Jewry is very old. Some of those who came were Marannos and later there were Jews who converted to Islam despite the well known strength of the Jewish traditions of moroccan Jewry. As a result you do find arabs today with names like "ibn Cohen" , a clear indication that this Arab came from Jewish stock. Rabbi Garson related a story about his father, my cousin Mo Garson who met a spanish non Jew at a business meeting and told him that based on his family name, it was clear that his family had Jewish roots. The next day this man called Mo and told him that he had gone home and asked his grandmother who admitted to him that they were in fact of Jewish Spanish descent.

By this time it was early afternoon and we were all given a choice of driving a few hours into the mountains to see the last Jew in the Atlas Mountains or to spend our few remaining hours there at the casbah, the enormous colorful market area of Marrakech. Half the group went to the mountains and half the group chose the market.

Here is the story of the last Jew. Up in the mountains there were numerous Jewish villages in ancient times. They lived among the tribal people of the area, the Berbers. Gradually they all either moved or died out. There are many tzaddikim or baalei mofes buried there. This Jew lived near the kever of a famous tzaddik. And he soon became the last Jew in the area. But he decided to remain as he felt that someone had to stay and care for the kever of this tzaddik.

When he got married his wife convinced him to make Aliya and they moved to Israel . On arrival in Israel he became deathly ill and to him this was a sign from the tzaddik that he must return. He did and some years later his wife died but because he has never had a dream or a vision from the tzaddik that he can leave, he remains. The group who went said that it was an amazing trip. In the middle of nowhere. they went to pray at the kever of this tzaddik and to also receive a Berachah from the Jew who has spent his life as the carer of the tzaddik.

Those of us who remained behind toured and shopped in the market. We love markets and have been to many in all parts of the world; Mexico, Australia, hong kong, and in all parts of Europe to name some of them. This clearly surpasses all of them. In the large square in front of the market there are various tribesmen with their performing monkeys, snake charmers, story tellers, appliers of henna, fortune tellers etc. They have not banned motor bikes or bicycles or horse and buggies from the square so you must always keep an ear open for 'balak' which means watch out or you will be run over by a speeding cyclist.

In the casbah there are many herbalists and spice merchants. We attended a talk and explanation by one of the herbalists/spice merchants who explained all the benefits of the various herbs that will cure various aches and ailments from insomnia to snoring to sore joints to Mosquitos etc. Needless to say he walked away with a lot of our Moroccan dirhams.

We also bought some of the Moroccan slippers (likely to be used on Purim), a tagine which Fran will now use to make a gourmet couscous and Moroccan chicken, some Ras al Channout, which is the patented spice mixture of a particular spice merchant etc etc

The colors were amazing and the market gave us a real sense of how people traded in ancient morocco.

We haggled with everyone and by the time we left we were getting quite good at paying about 20 -30% of asking price.

We also hired a local to give us a horse and buggy ride around the area and the cost was about a tenth of a similar Central Park ride split amongst the 6 of the passengers.

From there we were off to the community centre where we had davened our first mincha 4 days earlier for our closing dinner and we were off to the airport.