Day 2 MoroccoThis has been a very busy day...we really saw a lot and it was nonstop morning till night
Up early this morning for shacharis at the Neve Shalom school and synagogue
200 students in the school which represents 40% of all kids in casablanca
We had breakfast there and heard about the Jews of Casablanca and their history from Rav Sebag who is a Lubavitcher Moroccan
There are more than 8 million people in Casablanca out of a total population of 32 million in morocco - about the same amount as Canada - in a much smaller space
The country seems very poor and third world ... Lots of horse and buggies, donkeys camels etc ... More bikes and motorcycles than cars...quite dirty streets and driving seems like the "wild west "
You cannot drink the water... Only bottled water
The hotel on the other hand was truly first class and was until recently owned by one of the Ghaddafi sons
We then went to the cemetery and visited the graves of some of the relatives of people on our trip...for one of them, it was the first time that he was able to say Kaddish at his father's kever who died when he was a small child...very moving
We also visited the kever of a famous tzaddik and heard an amazing story about him...we will fill in the details when we return
We then drove on to a street in downtown Casablanca where there are seven Shuls that all have minyan every morning at 7 am ...fortunately one was open For us to visit ...and as we walked in one of the group told us that he had his bar mitzvah there ...so we all had a rikkud
As we walked down that street, on every corner the locals were burning the "rosh keves" the head of the lamb that they all Schechted for the festival
...as you drive around today there is smoke everywhere and the smell of BBQ lamb is in the air
We are now driving for an hour to Rabat the capital, where one of our stops will be the kever of some of the kings of Morocco ...it is the sign of the amazing hakorat hatov that the Jews have for the protection that they received from the Moroccan royal family ad hayom hazeh
The government actually has placed security guards at various points on our route to ensure that our journey is safe
We later heard that even tho the kings have been good for the Jews, there are conflicting opinions as to the role of the king on wwII
In the group of people that are traveling together, I have met the daughter of my mohel (from Gateshead) and a gentleman who spent Pesach in 1949 at the hotel owned by my grandfather Yitzchak Gershon Woolf zt"l the Norfolk in Brighton
We stopped at the mausoleum of king Hassan II who is buried together with a couple of other kings and paid our respects
We continued on to the Mella of Rabat (Mella is the Jewish quarter) which is just inside the Medina (city gates) and met the rabbi/schochet/mohel/kol Bo of Rabat area. His name is rabbi Menachem. He opened the shul next to his house so that we could daven mincha there .
He spoke and told us about the history of the 250 year old shul and how it was started by a great zaddik and how people would come from all over for berachot
He told us that there were 25000 Jews in Rabat and how today there are less than 200 left and how he will be going to Israel in the near future as well
We asked him who will care for the community when he leaves. He answered...Hashem has made miracles for our people and will make another one in this case
Rabbi Garson closed our visit to the shul with a bio of Rabbi Chaim Ibn Attar and then we davened mincha
We boarded the bus for a one and a half hour trip to Meknes and ate lunch on the bus
Arriving in Meknes, one of the 4 imperial cities, we stopped just inside the gates of the old city and visited an old school and shul that is no longer in use. We met one of the custodians of the shul who told us about the history of the community...there were 26000 Jews and now only 55 remain. There are no children and as such no school. Most families moved to Israel or canada or France
We heard from Rabbi Garson about the famous Rav Barych Refael Toledano and some of the nissim associated with him and how he got his added name Rephael and how he changed his family name from Toledo to Toledano.
He also shared with us a dvar torah from Rav toledano regarding the phrase Hashem melech, Hashem Malach etc. Great dvar Torah
We then crossed the street and went to the 400 year old cemetery where a number of tzaddikim are buried including Rav Refael Hamalach. The cemetery is in total disrepair even tho they claim that it is in much better shape having been recently cleared of much of the brush that covered it.
We then drove for about two hours and arrived in Fes at about 6 PM
Fez had a major Jewish population till the 50s and 60s, and now there are about 150 left, so we were all shocked when we entered the shul which still has a daily minyan. It was small but really one of the most beautiful and well kept shuls that we have seen
After davening maariv, we checked into the Ramada Hotel and we had a catered dinner in the hotel dining room...salads, couscous and chicken with Moroccan desserts
We ended off the day with a stroll down the main street in town where many people were winding down the Eid Festival
No comments:
Post a Comment