The Making of Modern Saints: Manufactured Charisma and the Abu-Hatseiras of Israel

Author(s): Yoram Bilu and Eyal Ben-Ari

Source: American Ethnologist , Nov., 1992, Vol. 19, No. 4, Imagining Identities: Nation,
Culture, and the Past (Nov., 1992), pp. 672-687
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/644913

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the making of modern saints: manufactured charisma
and the Abu-Hatseiras of Israel

YORAM BILU-The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

EYAL BEN-ARI-The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In this article we examine the charismatization of "saints" in present-day Israel, focusin

the production of charisma in and around two contemporary members of the Abu-Hat
family. By way of introduction, let us briefly situate our argument in relation to the theoret
issues involved in the analysis of charisma and show how the case at hand may facilita
exploration of them.
The term charisma, as Weber (1968:241-242) notes, refers to "a certain quality of an
vidual personality by virtue of which he is considered extraordinary and treated as endow
with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities." W
ening this definition, Shils (1975:127) argues that charisma "is the quality which is imput
persons, actions, rules, institutions, symbols, and material objects because of their presum
connection with 'ultimate,' 'fundamental,' 'ritual,' and order-determining powers." Yet
risma seems to involve more than this. As Tambiah (1984:326) contends, there is a basic du
or bifurcation in Weber's treatment of charisma: charisma is described not only as essent
unstable, volatile, and "revolutionary" but also as institutionalized, constitutive of soci
tion, and woven into all concrete situations.
On the whole, anthropologists have paid relatively little attention to the term and the q
ties associated with it (Almagor 1983; Lewis 1989; Morris 1987:86). Our aim, however, i
to add yet another explication of the concept but rather to explore the complexity that li
the base of a specific kind of charisma: lineage or clan charisma. Lineage charisma epitom
the stable, orderly aspect of charismatic qualities as they are institutionalized within a spe
kin group (Tambiah 1984:326). We argue that despite the apparent stability of this type of
risma, in actuality it should be seen as a precarious, socially constructed product that is o
to contention. We further argue that in order to understand the propagation of such char
in contemporary societies such as Israel, one must consider the role of such "modern" me
as the media, economic organizations, and various arms of the modern state. Finally, we

In this article we analyze the sanctification of two figures in contemporary Israel.

The two figures-Baba Sali and his son Baba Baruch-belong to the Abu-Hatseira
family, which many Jews of North African origin perceive to possess lineage or
clan charisma. We use the analytical metaphor of "manufactured" charisma in
order to explore the ways in which such present-day means as the media (written
and broadcast), industry, and various state structures have been used to create a
particular public image of these men. We suggest that in order to understand their
sanctification, one must also examine the North African idiom of saint worship as
well as certain assumptions about legitimate public action that underlie contem-
porary Israeli culture. [charisma, lineage charisma, manufactured charisma, Israel,
public culture]

American Ethnologist 19(4):672-687. Copyright ? 1992, American Anthropological Association.

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gest that the analytical metaphor of "manufactured" charisma (Glassman 1975) captures both
the basic precariousness and the organizational basis of clan charisma in contemporary soci-
eties.

In January 1984 Rabbi Israel Abu-Hatseira, a renowned sage and scion of a virtuous Jewish
family from southern Morocco, passed away at the age of 94. He was buried in the southern
development town of Netivot, Israel, where he had spent his last years. In the years that have
passed since his death, the grave site of Baba Sali (as the saint is rather affectionately known
among his adherents) has swiftly become a pilgrimage center of national significance. Through-
out the year, the grave site bustles with visitors who come in private cars or in organized bus-
loads to pray, to ask for the saint's intervention in personal problems, to host meals in gratitude
for requests granted, and to celebrate familial ceremonies (such as bar mitzvahs).
The celebration (Hebrew: hillulah) on the anniversary of the rabbi's death draws between
100,000 and 150,000 followers, a figure representing between two and three percent of the
country's Jewish population. In a country like Israel, which is replete with holy sites, such a
crowd (second only to the sizeable congregation assembled annually at the tomb of the leg-
endary talmudic sage and mystic Rabbi Shim'on Bar-Yohai at Meiron) is at the very least im-
pressive. In contrast to other hillulot, such as the celebration for Rabbi Haim Houri in Beer-
sheva (Weingrod 1990:20), the festival in Netivot is-to use an advertising term-the object of
intense "promotion campaigns," complete with media coverage, official invitations, special
bus lines, organized markets, and government backing. Moreover, the hillulah also brings to it
organized political interests and personages such as the prime minister and cabinet ministers,
party leaders, and local officials, as well as representatives of the chief rabbinate.
The hillulah and the site at Netivot are two rather dramatic indicators of the process by which
Baba Sali has been established as a national tsaddiq (saint), the saint of Israel of the 1980s and
1990s. In Judaism, in contrast to Catholicism (Gudeman 1976; Wolf 1969), saints have never
undergone formal canonization. Nonetheless, the strength of popular sentiment clearly indi-
cates that Baba Sali has been placed on the most exalted level of the Jewish "pantheon" of
pious personages, reaching the stature of such charismatic rabbis as Shim'on Bar-Yohai and
Meir Baal HaNess, talmudic sages who have figured as objects of veneration for centuries. To-
day in almost any urban settlement one may find a street or synagogue bearing his name. His
picture appears in more Israeli houses than that of any other Jewish figure, and his portrait
adorns a surprisingly wide selection of holy and mundane objects, from prayer books to key
chains.

The case of Baba Sali thus raises a number of questions about the mechanisms underlying
his genesis as the holiest figure in present-day Israel. The intriguing qualities of this process
involve not only its course and direction but, no less important, its swiftness and pervasiveness.
Having been widely viewed as a worthy carrier of the Abu-Hatseira family's glorious tradition,
Baba Sali was already considered a sainted figure in his lifetime. Yet for a contemporary rabbi,
virtuous and venerable as he may have been, to transcend the bounds of historical reality to
become a legendary figure (challenging comparison with the most popular sainted personages
in Judaism), and to do so within a mere half-decade, appears quite extraordinary. Charismati-
zation or "mythologization" of such magnitude is usually a lengthy historical process that pre-
fers a "remote and malleable past to a recent one, perhaps too painful or too well known"
(Lowenthal 1975:31). What, then, are the major cultural elements that formed the background
for the emergence of Baba Sali? How were the media, the state, and large bureaucratic orga-
nizations used to facilitate such rapid sanctification? How do these "modern" means square
with the conceptions of saint worship that Baba Sali's adherents brought with them from North
Africa?

While Baba Sali was already considered a virtuous figure during his lifetime, his son and
successor, Rabbi Baruch Abu-Hatseira (Baba Baruch), has not devoted himself to scholarship
and asceticism as his father did. Though raised by his father in Erfud (southern Morocco), Bar-

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uch spent much of his youth in Paris. After following his father to Israel in the mid-1960s, he
decided to pursue a political career and was elected deputy mayor of Ashkelon (a southern
development town in which Baba Sali had lived before moving to Netivot). During this period
he was party to a much-publicized adulterous affair and, in his capacity as deputy mayor, was
accused of corrupt practices, found guilty, and sentenced to a long term in prison. On being
paroled (he received an early release after five years in prison), he joined his father for the last
three months of the saint's life.
Despite the corrosion of his public image and despite the existence of other (perhaps more
worthy) contenders for the succession, Baba Baruch has managed to take his father's mantle.
He took possession of his father's house in Netivot and arranged for Baba Sali's burial in the
local cemetery. In a short time he transformed the informal network of his father's supporters
in Israel and abroad into a very efficient organization. Relying on the generous financial aid of
these adherents, he built around the burial site a magnificent sanctuary to cater to pilgrims.
While Baruch's public image is still controversial, it appears safe to say that he has been ac-
cepted by wide circles of Moroccan Jews as his father's legitimate successor and as a possessor
of the family's powerful, specially blessed character.
Like the case of Baba Sali, the case of Baba Baruch raises a number of intriguing questions.
How, given Baba Baruch's dubious background, could his claim for the legitimacy of his po-
sition garner such widespread support and validation? Does the very precariousness of his sit-
uation tell us something about the uncertainty involved in the propagation of charisma? And
how is his image related to certain assumptions about social action that characterize contem-
porary Israeli culture?

Baba Sali: background and personal attributes

Two characteristics of the milieu in which Baba Sali emerged as a contemporary saint were
essential to his consecration. The first was the special folk veneration of saints among the Jews
of North Africa, a major, if not the major, cultural idiom and constituent in the collective iden-
tity of these people (Ben-Ami 1984; Deshen 1977; Weingrod 1990). Despite being rooted in
North Africa, this hagiolatrous tradition has not been attenuated in Israel (Ben-Ari and Bilu
1987; also Deshen 1977). For Moroccan-born Israelis and their descendants (now constituting
the largest Jewish ethnic group in the country), the cultural idiom of saint worship is still viable
and is still employed to articulate a wide range of experiences.
The second characteristic was the Abu-Hatseiras' special reputation among these people and
within the ambience of saint worship (as cultivated particularly in southern Morocco) as the
most virtuous of Jewish families. Pious rabbis have adorned the family's genealogy for gener-
ations, establishing a sense of zekhut avot. As with the North African notion of baraka, or "spir-
itual force" (Crapanzano 1973; Geertz 1968; Gellner 1969; Westermarck 1926), zekhut avot
implies both divine grace and ancestral merit (Bilu 1986, 1990), connoting powerful inherited
blessedness and ascribed virtue. On the whole the Jews of Morocco did not adopt the Islamic
tradition of associating holiness with noble descent from charismatic figures like the Prophet,
and therefore they had fewer living saints and holy families (Stillman 1982). Nevertheless, the
idea that sanctity could be deeply ingrained in certain lines of ancestry was not foreign to them.
For example, some of our informants explicitly stated that once holiness had recurred thrice in
one family (that is, once three of its members had been acknowledged as sainted figures), it
became a family possession "forever."
The first exponent of piety and holiness in the Abu-Hatseira family was Rabbi Ya'acov (1808-
80), a charismatic and mystically oriented scholar who became a central figure in the Jewish
Moroccan pantheon of saints. Many of Rabbi Ya'acov's descendants were pious and erudite
rabbis venerated as tsaddiqim. (Of these figures Baba Sali, his grandson, is unequivocally the

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most popular.) Indeed, anyone born into this kin group would possess a certain amount of cha-
risma by the mere fact of relation. In such cases the charismatic qualities of individuals matter
less than the position they have acquired by hereditary succession (Bendix 1962:102; Weber
1947:366).
How does this bear upon the case of Baba Sali? At first sight, it might be argued that his
consecration essentially consisted of a continuation of the Abu-Hatseiras' lineage charisma.
That is, Baba Sali's sanctification-and his son's-but exemplified the transfer of the extraor-
dinary powers vested in the kin group. Furthermore, as a descendant of a holy family, Baba Sali
provided a focus for the hagiolatrous sentiments previously directed toward Jewish Moroccan
saints whose tombs had been left behind and, in a sense, "deserted" when North African Jews
emigrated to Israel. However, the practice of saint worship and the existence of clan charisma
were not sufficient to ensure Baba Sali's ascent to saintly status, because his followers in Israel
include many people who are not Moroccan immigrants. Among his adherents one finds a wide
array of Jews of Middle Eastern origin, native-born Israelis, and some religiously inclined peo-
ple of European origin. There must be something about his life, or, more correctly, the stories
about his life, that appeals to an audience not limited to "ethnic" Moroccans.
As we see it, Baba Sali's son and adherents have molded his image into one marked by a
particular kind of piety and sanctity. In the plethora of stories about him, Baba Sali (at least
during his years in Israel) is depicted as an ascetic and withdrawn figure, entirely free of mun-
dane concerns. He is said to have seldom left his house-having his synagogue and ritual bath
located within its confines-and thus to have compelled his followers to come to him. Devoting
much of his time to solitary prayer and learning, often accompanied by almost week-long fasts,
he radiated an image of humble self-sufficiency, constriction, introversion, and "invisibility."
Thus, for example, many people emphasized that when he participated in collective prayers at
his house, he often did so hidden in a small cell adjacent to the synagogue.
His external appearance seems to have reinforced this image, since Baba Sali, exceptionally
tall in his youth, seemed to shrink with old age and fasting. Moreover, the traditional garments
he wore covered his body completely, leaving only part of his face exposed. But, while the
rabbi's image was clearly shaped by his actual conduct, what is of importance is how his be-
havior has captured the imagination of the masses and produced a fertile matrix for mythol-
ogization.
Superimposed on the rabbi's passive image, we would suggest, is a representation at once
antithetical and complementary to it. In this representation, each minor detail of the rabbi's
most private behavior is portrayed as partaking of cosmic significance. Thus, his followers often
depict his seclusion as a misleading "surface" feature, since his acts are said to have tran-
scended his individuality, to have had relevance for the state of Israel and for the Jewish people.
The rabbi's odd conduct before the Six-Day War in 1967 exemplified this kind of link be-
tween private behavior and public occurrence. According to his son, during that tense period
the rabbi closed himself up in his room, refused to eat in daylight, and slept on a mat rather
than on a bed. When these ascetic measures were questioned, he responded: "The people of
Israel are in great trouble, so how can I eat or sleep on a bed?" On the evening of 5 June he
reportedly said to his older son (Baruch's elder sibling, now deceased): "Tomorrow morning
the war will break out; I will lock myself in my room. Don't let anybody knock on my door or
otherwise disturb me. You will come only to tell me that 400 enemy planes were destroyed."
This example-a "well-known story," according to Baruch-accentuates the late rabbi's pro-
found sense of responsibility for the Jewish people and their state.
Every major occurrence in Baba Sali's life was similarly "mythologized"-rendered mean-
ingful on an other-worldly level and linked to a historical or metahistorical event. Thus, people
interpreted the fact that he changed residence many times, both in Morocco and in Israel, as a
deliberate attempt on his part to embody the collective Jewish experience of galut (exile). His
finally settling in Netivot was accounted for as an emulation of Abraham the Patriarch, who

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erected his tent in nearby Gerar more than three millennia ago. Likewise, in oral accounts and
written biographies, he is often straightforwardly compared with the greatest luminaries in Jew-
ish history, from Moses and Rabbi Shim'on Bar-Yohai (with whom he is said to have had a
particular affinity) to the BESHT (acronym for Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov, the 18th-century
founder of the Hasidic movement). This transcendence of historical bounds was facilitated by
the fact that Baba Sali is also said to have been a practicing cabalist, deeply immersed in Jewish
mysticism.
The links between the rabbi's life and events of "wider" significance were augmented by the
family's reputation for miraculous healing. The Abu-Hatseiras have a unique curative method:
they make a blessing over water, which thereby becomes a healing fluid (to be drunk or rubbed
on parts of the body) used to counteract a variety of aches and problems from impotence to
cancer. This medical specialization had drawn a multitude of patients to the rabbi's house dur-
ing his lifetime. Indeed, our field notes are replete with stories about the miraculous healings
of informants or of their relatives or acquaintances.
Another element underscoring the perceived links between Baba Sali's apparently passive,
withdrawn life on the one hand and his cosmic significance on the other was the Abu-Hatseira
family's longstanding image as communal leaders deeply involved in public affairs. In Mo-
rocco, members of the family served as leaders of religious academies and rabbinical courts
and as representatives of the Jewish community vis-a-vis the Muslims and French. This image
helped to foster the notion that the rabbi's private activities bore a general, collectively oriented
message.
Finally, the rabbi's stance toward Zionism and the secular state of Israel was known t
essentially favorable. Despite his uncompromising condemnation of antireligious values
practices (such as abortions and activities desecrating the Sabbath), Baba Sali is said to
seen Israel-that is, the state as a political entity-in agreeable terms. Given this generally
itive stance, it was not difficult to depict him as a man concerned about the welfare of
country and to transform him into a national patron saint. It would have been much more
ficult to do so to an ultraorthodox Ashkenazi rabbi, pious as he might be, who was anti-Zio
and dissociated from the state.

Baba Baruch: the precariousness of legitimacy

While Baba Sali's lifestyle lent itself to aggrandizement and mythologization, his son's n
torious personal record as a former convict and adulterer was obviously not the stuff of s
tification. How then did Baruch establish himself as his father's legitimate successor?
might argue that he simply reaped the benefit of the accumulated zekhut: that is, as the g
grandson of Rabbi Ya'acov, he enjoyed the accumulated merit or virtue of the whole fami
Yet even within the Maghrebi tradition, zekhut avot should be viewed not as a fixed quality
rather as a potentiality that under certain adverse conditions may not be realized. It is no
permanent, immutable quality inhering in the institutionalized succession of a family. Ind
given Baruch's well-known criminal record, it might even be argued that the familial b
ground was a "mixed blessing" for him: rather than serving to downplay his frailties, it m
have, by way of contrast, accentuated and dramatized them. As a result, some effective t
niques of neutralization (Sykes and Matza 1957) have had to be employed to reconcile
Baruch's moral weaknesses with the familial aura of holiness.
Baruch has chosen to deal with his problematic past in what may strike the cynical observer
as a rather "creative" manner. He has managed to construct an autobiographical narrative that
accounts for all the elements of his past. Thus, while he claims to have been innocent of the
specific fraud and bribery for which he was sentenced to seven years in prison, he admits that
his involvement (against his father's explicit wishes) with the "impure" world of politics was

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reprehensible and worthy of punishment. Moreover, he does not deny other moral failings,
such as a lengthy extramarital affair and negligence of religious observances. Our interviews
with Baba Baruch indicate that, in dwelling on rather than disregarding the darker aspects of
his life, he is attempting to convey three distinct messages. First, in emphasizing that he has
lived with killers, rapists, and drug addicts, he suggests that he is well suited to deal with the
human misery of those seeking his help: no human experience, he implies, is foreign to him.
Second, in meticulously detailing the tribulations that were his share in prison, he suggests that
he has paid in full for his misconduct. And third, in pointing to his subsequent spiritual trans-
formation, he suggests that in prison his religious faith and moral commitment were strength-
ened rather than weakened. According to Baba Baruch, he was the primary source of a wave
of religious revivalism there, serving as a ray of hope and comfort for other inmates.
Indeed, by highlighting the moral integrity he demonstrated in prison, Baruch seeks to make
a virtue of his failings. Using a biblical metaphor, he likens prison to a furnace in which the
dross was separated from the gold and eliminated from his soul. Furthermore, he presents the
dire consequences of his short-lived political career as a heavenly trial, part of a mystical plan
to test, purify, and transform him into the worthy heir of his sainted father. In this sense, prison
served as a penitentiary in the literal sense of the word.
Baruch describes his ultimate transformation, or symbolic rebirth, in terms of spirit posses-
sion. Implicitly using the mystical idiom of the transmigration or translocation of souls (Scholem
1969), he argues that his father's soul now inhabits his own body. In one interview we con-
ducted with him, he said:

I was the only one present when he passed away. No one else was in the room. It was [in the hospital]
in Beer-sheva. Just the two of us. And he talked to me until 10 or 15 minutes before he passed away....
He said: "If you accept everything I have told you and you give me your hand [as an oath], all my power
will pass to you." This was his promise. And I promised that I would do whatever he had told me to do.
And my hand was in his hand. And then something extraordinary happened, something altogether un-
common between father and son. Since my childhood I had never kissed my father's lips, only his hands
and head; that was our custom. But on that day, a few minutes before he passed away-when I was still
talking to him, holding his right hand in my right hand-he raised his left hand with the intravenous
needle and all that [medical] gear, and put it this way [around me].... He drew me to him and kissed
me on the mouth. A farewell kiss.
As far as I understand, in this kiss he transmitted to me what he had promised. Because I remember
that after the farewell I felt that my hand was in his hand during the very moment of the departure of his
soul. At that moment I felt that something new penetrated my body. I felt a tremor shaking me all over.
I felt that I was not the same person I had been just a few moments ago.... [I felt it] all over my body,
all of a sudden.... I was quivering. I felt that I became an altogether different person, that even my voice
became his voice; it was not me talking. That's it! And then I burst into tears.

The theme of sudden self-transformation and reconstitution is clearly congruent with Weber's
stress on the accounts charismatic leaders give of receiving the "call" (cf. Weber 1947). Yet
Baruch's story is formulated in a distinctly North African idiom.
This transfer of power from father to son resonates with the Maghrebi notions of baraka and
zekhut avot, "often referred to as a physical substance ... which can be gleaned by a physical
contact with a marabout [Moroccan saint] or a shrine" (Eickelman 1976:160). The transfer of
holiness through food, saliva, kisses, or even vomit is not infrequent (Bilu and Hasan-Rokem
1989; Crapanzano 1973); indeed, the conception of holy grace as something concrete and
transferable is particularly conducive to Baruch's claims, since he is known to have once been
dissociated from his father's spiritual concerns. For an audience well acquainted with the cul-
tural notions of inherited blessedness and transmigration of souls, it is hard to conceive of a
more impressive narrative to convey the idea that Baruch now possesses his father's spiritual
gifts.

In addition to being couched in a culturally appropriate and emotionally moving idiom, Bar-
uch's reconstitution seems to fit the general pattern of religious "conversion" among Israelis of
Middle Eastern and North African extraction. Many of these penitents-born-again Jews, to use
an Americanism-have forsaken the religion of their childhood only to return to the faith later

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on (Aviad 1983; Bilu 1990). Theirs is not the more common Ashkenazi pattern, in which a
"return" to Judaism entails a discovery of something that had not been experienced directly
during one's younger years. Hence, in discussing his childhood in Morocco, Baruch nostalgi-
cally dwells on the religious life in the mellahs (Jewish quarters). Upon moving to France and
then to Israel, he says, he was lured away from religion by the temptations of modernity. In
playing up his adoption of his father's lifestyle at midlife, Baruch thus strikes a chord familiar
to many Middle Eastern Jews who have moved away from the beliefs of their earlier years.
We suggest that Baruch is a particularly fitting model of religious repentance because he has
moved away from and then back to piety and spirituality in such a dramatic and extreme way.
His is repentance writ large, as he was born into the holiest family in southern Morocco only
to be drawn later in life into the darkest recesses of sin. In this context, the "conversion" of
Baruch and his identification with his father may be viewed as genuinely exemplary steps,
bringing a socially meaningful behavioral sequence to a close. In sum, then, underlying Bar-
uch's articulation of the past is a model of conversion emphasizing dramatic self-transforma-
tion. Given his past reluctance to follow his father's footsteps into the world of learning and
mystical piety, it is hardly surprising that Baruch espouses this model.
Yet in order to successfully claim to be his father's legitimate heir, Baruch has had to provide
some kind of confirmation. In Jewish Moroccan hagiolatry, visitational dreams are often seen
as the vehicle for the transmission of knowledge and instructions from sainted figures (Bilu
1986; Bilu and Abramovitch 1985). Against this background, Baruch's claims that his father
frequents his dreams, reassuring him that he is the legitimate heir, cannot be dismissed by Baba
Sali's adherents as a mere calculated fabrication. Indeed, Baruch has employed this psycho-
cultural resource quite unparsimoniously. On various occasions he has stated that his father
lavished on him four times more blessedness and prowess than he, the old patriarch himself,
commanded during his lifetime.
Moreover, Baruch has had to demonstrate that he can actually deploy the power putatively
promised in the dreams. The family's distinctive healing tradition has long been one of the
qualities underlying their popularity and renown. Baba Sali himself was active as a healer and
venerated as a miracle worker: until his very last days, people from all over the country flocked
to his house, bottles of water in their hands, to seek his help; we even heard that Arabs from
Gaza (located only 15 kilometers from Netivot) and members of the Saudi royal family had
visited the old rabbi. Despite the apparently unimpressive nature of the healing procedure-it
is devoid of ceremony and to outsiders such as us seems to be rather laconically delivered-
stories of miraculous cures were, and still are, very common.
As we stated before, the notion of lineage charisma was essential to Baruch's plea for legit-
imation, since he did not display other signs of piety and virtue. Particularly in regard to healing,
he could easily adopt the family's "specialization" without undertaking special preparations
or long and arduous instruction. Long-time devotees of the family have accepted this particular
move uncritically, even with a sense of relief. They have done so because the death of Baba
Sali, the archhealer, threatened to create a vacuum that nonfamily alternatives (let alone med-
ical agencies) could not fill. Thus, Baruch's first acts as his father's successor were in the role
of healer: during the seven days of ritual mourning after his father's death, aptly dramatic and
miraculously unexpected stories of his power began to spread by word of mouth and through
newspaper reports. He was, for example, said to have enabled a paralytic to rise from his chair.
Emphasizing the essential similarity and continuity between father and son has been one of
Baba Baruch's central rhetorical strategies. Indeed, we believe that Baruch is critically depen-
dent on this perceived similarity. As long as he is able to convince his followers that he is an
"extension" of his father, his position is assured a modicum of security. Therefore, not only has
he tried to foster the notion that his every move is inspired and closely monitored by his father-
through dreams-but he has also hastened to wear his father's mantle and to grow a beard like
his. The physical similarity, together with Baruch's adoption of the title "Baba" (father), has

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had a very strong impact on many common believers, further reinforcing the idea that Baba
Sali's soul now inhabits his son.

Yet this still does not suffice to explain either the swiftness or the scope of the sanctification
of father and son. We now shift our analytical lens from Baba Sali and Baba Baruch themselves
to the means by which their stories have been passed on. We pass, if you like, from "charisma"
to its "production."

manufactured charisma: the selling of the saint

Shils (1975:128) posits that a culture "can foster the discernment of charismatic signs and
properties by focusing attention, providing canons of interpretation, and recommending the
appreciation of the possession of these signs and properties." Eliciting a recognition of charis-
matic qualities, that is, usually involves a large measure of active, intentional promotion or
propagation. This would suggest that we should examine the conscious planning and inten-
tionality that lie behind what has happened in Netivot. Weingrod (1990:20) has drawn a telling
contrast between our case and that of Rabbi Haim Houri, whose grave is now a sacred site in
the town of Beer-sheva: the establishment of the latter site was "naive and spontaneous,"
Weingrod writes, while that of the one in Netivot was calculated and purposeful. But what do
we mean by laying so much stress on intentionality and purposefulness?
Here we would suggest using two analytical metaphors provided by scholars dealing with
charisma in complex, industrialized societies. Glassman (1975) has offered the concept of
"manufactured" charisma, while Ling (1987) has proposed the term "synthetic" charisma to
characterize the role of various media and technologies in creating and propagating claims to
charisma. These scholars have focused almost exclusively on politics, on the charismatic
"packaging" of political figures. Both seem to assume that the religious sphere is somehow still
one of a pure, "real" charisma that is not actualized by any "artificial" means. We propose to
go beyond their exclusive focus on political figures and to suggest that similar processes of
manufacture can be discerned in regard to the charisma of religious figures. To reiterate, we do
not propose to add yet another conceptual elaboration of the term; rather, we intend to focus
on the actual production of Baba Sali's and Baba Baruch's charisma.
In this respect Baba Baruch's organizational efforts are of prime importance. The proximity
of the father's burial site to the son's residence has enabled Baruch to monopolize the inten-
tional use of his father's "qualities" and to exert a close control over even the most minute
changes in the shrine. This proximity was not easy to achieve; Baba Sali had a burial place
waiting for him in Jerusalem, but Baruch succeeded in bringing him to eternal rest in Netivot
instead. The space between the house and the tomb, about half a kilometer long, was originally
empty, so that each site could be extended toward the other. On one side, the tomb was en-
closed in a spacious sanctuary, and an opulently decorated synagogue was erected next to it.
The whitewashed tomb and synagogue now form an impressive edifice (clearly visible from a
distance), part of a larger, walled enclosure that includes a parking lot, a picnic area, a restau-
rant, vendors' booths, and other facilities. On the other side, the rabbi's residence was enlarged
and the foundations of Kiriyat Baba Sali, a big religious campus, were laid. Today, the first
buildings of this campus are already standing: the headquarters of Baba Baruch's organization,
a yeshiva (religious academy), a kindergarten, and a Talmud Torah (religious school). These
were built in a distinctively Moorish style, sharply at odds with the plebeian neighborhood
surrounding them. They may further blur the differences between house and shrine, between
father and son.

In order to implement his plans, Baba Baruch has founded Amotat Baba Sali, a nonprofit,
tax-exempt organization composed of public figures, rabbis, lawyers, and accountants. The
board of directors meets irregularly in the rabbi's house to discuss projects designed to "culti-

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vate and deepen Baba Sali's heritage," as one brochure puts it, but it usually just rubber-stamps
Baruch's plans. Baruch also controls a small staff of executives, aides, and secretaries who ad-
minister the institutions bearing Baba Sali's name. Complete with computers, fax machines,
and cordless telephones, the offices of this staff are marked by an atmosphere closer to that of
a quietly run, efficient business firm than to that of a center of religious zealots.
Clearly, the unparalleled sanctification of Baba Sali and Baba Baruch owes at least some of
its success to the peculiar "selling" of these saints. To achieve the power of a national myth, a
private story has to "go public." Thus, both the hidden, ineffable details of Baba Sali's life and
the elaborate projects of Baba Baruch in Netivot have had to be highlighted and publicized.
While part of this information is spread through the informal networks of the saints' followers,
the publicity has gone far beyond anything that can be achieved by word of mouth. In a word,
Baruch has clearly taken advantage of the opportunities provided by modern printing technol-
ogy, the media, and the Israeli state apparatus.
Baba Sali's praises are sung, for example, in a rich variety of literary products. The monthly
journal Bintivey Baba Sali (In the Path of Baba Sali) recounts miraculous tales of the late patri-
arch, while a decorated two-volume book in Hebrew and French (edited by Baba Baruch) de-
tails his life story, and a special series called Ma'aseh Tsaddiqim-Shoshelet Abu-Hatseira (The
Deeds of the Saints-The Abu-Hatseira Dynasty) teaches children about the feats of distin-
guished family members. These texts use all the latest types of graphic layout, printing, and
binding. No less important, the advertisements placed in them attest to Baba Baruch's network
of supporters and to the clientele that their readership represents for the businesses placing the
ads.
In addition, as the annual festival approaches, the country is subjected to a media blitz: spe-
cial notices are published in major newspapers, and the day's program is posted on billboards
all over Israel. By granting interviews to daily, weekly, and monthly journals and securing reg-
ular radio and television coverage, Baba Baruch achieves name recognition. Every year the big
dailies carry color spreads of the hillulah, complete with pictures of Baba Baruch, his guests,
and "typical" believers caught up in the ecstasy of the festival. An article in one of the major
dailies (Yediot Akharonot, 10 January 1989), for example, carried a full-page report complete
with three photographs: one of Baba Baruch and Yitzhak Shamir, the prime minister; one of a
booth selling video and tape cassettes in praise of the saint; and one of a "Middle Eastern"
barbecue manned by "ordinary" people. Another article (Jerusalem Post, 17 June 1988), enti-
tled "Son of Baba Sali," juxtaposed a photo of Baba Baruch and Deputy Prime Minister David
Levy hugging each other to one of a "faithful follower" carrying a portrait of Baba Sali. The
cover story of a regional newspaper (Kol-Bi LeBeer-Sheva VelaNegev, 13 January 1989) in-
cluded five pages of photographs of Baba Baruch and Shamir, the spot where sheep and goats
were slaughtered, kiosks, and the stage where a political rally took place at the end of the hil-
lulah.

Some reports and commentaries are not at all complimentary to Baba Baruch or the goings-
on at Netivot. One Jerusalem Post feature article (2 February 1990) was entitled "Hype, Hope
and Holy Water: It's Part Memorial Service, It's Part Festivity, and Like It or Not, It's Part of
Israel." Yet even this piece carried pictures of the ubiquitous Baba Baruch as well as of the site,
"ecstatic" women, and contributors from abroad. In short, even if particular pieces are satirical
or unflattering, they implicitly buttress the notion-at least among his father's followers-that
it is Baba Baruch, and not other family members, who is the legitimate heir of the Abu-Hat-
seiras.

We would suggest, following Glassman (1975:630), that newspapers, magazines, and tele-
vision programs create an atmosphere in which a leader can appear to be ever-present and
larger than life. It is the constant presence of Baba Sali and, in a different way, of Baba Baruch-
in bright print or in photographs-that helps manufacture their images as persons of power.
Significantly, Baba Baruch frequently wears his father's clothes (or ones very similar to them),

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thus using the media to create (quite successfully, according to our impression) that sense of
continuity with his father which is so crucial to his legitimacy. Of similar importance is the
unprecedented publicity that was accorded Baba Baruch's first cures. It may have reflected a
genuine need to find an effective substitute for the late healer; but, more pertinent to our anal-
ysis, it may also have reflected Baruch's skill at creating favorable public relations and manip-
ulating the media.
Like the media, the numerous objects-produced in modern workshops and factories-that
carry Baba Sali's image or that of his shrine also help to manufacture charisma. These products
are marketed on the site itself and around the country to a clientele interested in such "tradi-
tional" items. A cursory review of one stand located near the grave revealed a variety of prod-
ucts such as mezuzot (a mezuzah [singular] is a piece of parchment containing passages from
Deuteronomy, rolled up in a case and attached to one's doorpost), prayer books, clocks, can-
dles, cups, plates, pictures, postcards, photographs, key chains, and even videotapes of the
annual festival. Featuring songs in Hebrew and Moroccan Arabic, tape cassettes honoring Baba
Sali are an especially hot seller. (Most are commercially produced and marketed by two Tel-
Aviv recording companies dealing exclusively in cassettes [Jerusalem Post, 6 February 1990]).
Interestingly, songs written about the saint carry an extra bonus. Pirating is widespread in the
cassette market, but many of the tapes carry an admonition: "Warning. Don't copy this cas-
sette. It is for the sanctification of the tsaddiq."
While Baruch does not control the entire production and marketing of the sacred objects, he
virtually monopolizes sales around the shrine, and he encourages the introduction of new prod-
ucts every year. Thus, the last few years have seen the introduction of holograms of Baba Sali's
face, small carpets bearing his image, and miniature models of his sanctuary. The proliferation
of the Baba Sali "industry" clearly reflects a creative and entrepreneurial spirit underlying the
"selling" of the saint.
However, it is not merely a matter of merchandizing or salesmanship, for these products
partake of something else, something that Weber seems to have disregarded in his analysis of
charisma:

What escaped Weber, who was so alive to the routinization and objectification of charisma in institu-
tional structures, was the objectification of charisma in talismans, amulets, charms, regalia, and so
forth-a phenomenon as old as religion, indeed as old as all forms of religion. [Tambiah 1984:335]

As Tambiah notes, followers of saints recognize the properties of amulets and the like as
pragmatically effective because they are seen to embody the holy men's virtue and power. Baba
Baruch, it seems, has succeeded in enlisting a variety of Israeli commercial and industrial or-
gans in order to produce such objects, objects in which the saint's charisma has been "sedi-
mented."

Let us now turn to what may be termed the "logic-in-use" of these machine-made, mass-
produced objects. Graburn (1977:28) suggests that the procurables bought by pilgrims (and
tourists) have value not only in and of themselves but also as tangible evidence of travel, as
souvenirs that can be shared with family and friends and used to evoke memories of a more
remote, "ethnic" past. We argue that the mementos, postcards, and photographs procured at
Netivot help to propagate the saint's charisma in two ways: they are at one and the same time
means of "bringing" the saint home and icons of a contemporary North African Jewish version
of nostalgia (Stewart 1988). The first is perhaps most evident in the widespread practice of hang-
ing a picture of Baba Sali on the walls of one's home: he thus becomes both visible and acces-
sible; his image is fixed in objects that can be handled not only for their efficacy but also for
the memories they conjure up. Such objects also help people to recall and understand their
past, the way things used to be in Morocco. In other words, these items are part of a uniquely
contemporary phenomenon: a "procurable culture" (Douglas Cole, cited in Dominguez
1986), often found in museums but also in people's houses, that serves as a means of remem-
bering, strengthening, and creating membership in "ethnic" groups. The procurables do not

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have to be "truly" old or of an original, "real" past; their worth seems to lie in their ability to
arouse certain sentiments. In other words, they are memorabilia (Lowenthal 1975:6): although
recently produced, they nevertheless can prompt memories of an "old" home. To put this
rather pointedly, just as one goes to Netivot to see (and perhaps to show the children) how
things used to be (and in many ways how they should be), so one buys souvenirs to call up the
past.
It may now be clearer that saint worship in Israel is evidence not only of a continuity in basic
idiomatic usage or religious practice. For many of the believers, coming to Baba Sali's grave
site may be a way of both returning to their own past and bringing the saint home. The power
of Baba Sali's and Baba Baruch's charismatization is both rooted in the intense sentiments of
nostalgia and nurtured by means of contemporary technology (Appadurai 1990:2).

contrasts and discontinuities

Yet it would not be accurate to argue just that Baba Baruch is an astute manipulator of
Israeli media, commerce, and industry, someone who has played on his people's longin
recapture their past. For Baba Sali's and Baba Baruch's sanctification is also closely link
certain cultural idioms and assumptions that underlie public life in present-day Israel.
While the importance of the bond between Baba Sali and his son cannot be overstated,
notion that Baruch seeks to become a replica of his father is too simple: behind the elab
facade of similarity and identity lie striking differences. In emphasizing differences we are
cerned not with the obviously divergent careers that the late rabbi and his son have unde
but rather with the images that are projected on the basis of their divergent lifestyles. W
sume that the two distinct lifestyles radiate distinct images of piety and virtuousness and
nate from altogether different sociocultural contexts.
In analyzing Baba Sali, we have pointed to constriction, asceticism, and passivity as the
dinal features of his perceived character. Baba Baruch, by contrast, radiates expansion, d
nance, and activity. He is extroverted and assertive. Unlike the purely spiritual image of
Sali, a man reportedly characterized by a repugnance for mundane concerns and a reluct
to leave home, Baruch's image is that of a strong-willed entrepreneur always seeking to e
his territory. Accompanied by a large entourage and ensconced in a spacious American
gas guzzler, Baruch travels up and down the country to participate in festive meals, c
contributions, and visit the religious institutions he has established in various towns. Every t
or four months he goes abroad to the big Jewish Moroccan diaspora communities which
vide most of the support for his undertakings. Again in contrast to other saint impresarios-
as Rabbi Houri's sons (Weingrod 1990:19), whose vocation has been at best a part-time
cupation-Baba Baruch is a full-time entrepreneur.
Ambitious, opinionated, and overbearing, Baruch is deeply involved with matters exte
beyond the religious realm. Among the more well known of these are municipal and nat
politics: he supported an ultraorthodox party in the 1988 elections, and in 1989 he urged
Israeli government to talk with the Palestine Liberation Organization, an action that emb
him in some controversy. Unlike his father, who embodied the traditional image of sacre
and spirituality, Baruch is mobile, visible, and involved. Even though he dresses like his f
he does not look like an ascetic. Full-bodied and unabashedly fond of alcohol, good food,
imported cigarettes, he appears self-indulgent and even hedonistic-despite his spiritu
awakening.
Baba Baruch's style, so radically different from his father's, is curiously reminiscent of the
pattern of "movement and energy" adopted by traditional Moroccan monarchs who relent-
lessly sought to maintain their charisma under politically adverse conditions (see Geertz
1983:134). While the analogy with royal tours in Morocco should not be overemphasized, we

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find the terms employed by Geertz to be illuminating in one central respect. The rulers' com-
pulsion to stress their connection to the symbolic centers of a social order indicated in a curious
way just how tenuous that connection actually was. Geertz underscores the essential fragility
of charismatic authority in Morocco, and we argue, similarly, that Baruch's "movement and
energy" reflect a problem from which his father, the personification of piety and virtuousness,
was altogether exempted. Emulating his father's passive lifestyle might have proved destructive
to Baruch's claims to legitimacy. In other words, Baruch has had to impress people by em-
ploying "conspicuous creations, devices for mobilizing, attracting, focusing and ordering at-
tention" (MacAloon 1987:262). Thus, the hillulah and the invited guests, the American-made
car and the entourage, the politicking and the public speeches about his father may all be seen
as props, scenery, and dramatic action in Baruch's play to appear powerful. In Glassman's
(1975:618) terms, they are all part of "stage-managing the charismatic process."
Yet Baba Baruch's entrepreneurial and expansive style is not merely a defensive maneuver
intended to compensate for an initially inferior position in the pursuit of legitimation. Baba
Sali's image as a sainted figure germinated in the Jewish society of southern Morocco and was
sustained in Israel, frozen in time, as an exemplar of a lost (and no doubt idealized) past. Baba
Baruch's road to sacredness was paved in contemporary Israel. As a "child" of the Israeli po-
litical system, he seems to patently espouse and expertly employ the "rules of the game"-the
values, norms, and symbols-that govern public life in Israel.
Baruch's relation to politics is most evident in the contrast between Baba Sali's hillulah and
other hillulot. As Weingrod (1990:105-106) notes, most hillulot are considered inappropriate
places to conduct political rallies; people object to attempts to merge religious exaltation and
narrow political appeals. Thus, in most hillulot one does not hear any public or political
speeches (Weingrod 1990:83). As against the spontaneous and apolitical nature of most hil-
lulot, the festival for Baba Sali includes a very tightly scheduled public event, replete with pub-
lic addresses given by the most important political figures in Israel. Baba Baruch uses the oc-
casion to show politicians his support and potential power, as well as to signify to his followers
his centrality in the country's political life. He takes pains to invite figures from the two leading
parties.
This kind of mutual exploitation by politicians and religious figures is not unique to Israel. In
Thailand, for example, "the real political significance of meditation masters is that, although
they are themselves not political figures, they have been taken-up and assiduously visited by
the country's politicians, bureaucrats and intelligentsia" (Tambiah 1984:334). What is impor-
tant in our case, however, is that Baba Baruch participates, in ways inconceivable for his father,
in the modern game of politics. In participating in state-regulated politics in Israel he both uses
and is used by party leaders. In this respect he is no different from the Lubavitcher rabbi (the
New York-based leader of the Habad Hasidic movement) or from the former chief Sephardi
rabbi Ovadia Yosef, men who over the past decade or so have become prime political actors
(see also Aronoff 1986, 1989).
Furthermore, Baruch focuses his attention on the Jewish Moroccan diaspora as a potential
source of financial support. In doing so he follows a path well trodden by many political figures
in Israel, who look to the diaspora community as a source of support for projects promoting
actualization of the Zionist dream (Kimmerling 1989:275). Like other leaders, Baruch sees that
community (or, more correctly, parts of it) as a "mobilized diaspora" (Armstrong 1976), as an
economic frontier. He has capitalized on (and perhaps also contributed to) the Sephardi dias-
pora's growing sense of responsibility for their Sephardi brethren in Israel.
Baba Baruch, then, may be seen as representing something quintessentially Israeli. For like
many public figures in Israel, he constantly seeks to make his mark on the country's landscape,
changing the actual physical topography of Netivot (and other places) by erecting and devel-
oping various institutions bearing his father's name. He uses monies contributed from abroad

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in accord with the Zionist ethos of nation building, and in this way makes perfect sense to a
following rooted in the reality of present-day Israel.
Establishing a national homeland for the Jewish people by building and settling on the land
has, after all, been a central tenet of Zionism (Liebman and Don Yehiya 1983:3-4). Indeed,
acts of settlement, like "Tower and Stockade" (Katriel and Shenhar 1990), and the rhetoric of
place attending them have been at the heart of Israel's nation-building ethos. (In these acts,
Zionist pioneers set up new agricultural communities in the course of one night by building a
watchtower and wall-the minimal architectural structures needed for the ruling British au-
thorities to recognize the site as a legitimate settlement. These acts have become a key scenario
[Ortner 1973] for later acts of settlement.) As Katriel and Shenhar rightly point out, in this dis-
course cultural members portray (and come to regard) themselves as participants in the making
of history; specific acts of settlement are considered part of a collective effort at "fixing" a link
to the land. As Katriel and Shenhar underline, rhetorics of place and rhetorics of action become
so intimately intertwined in the discourse of Zionism that establishing settlements and being
"active agents" come to mean the same thing.
Narratives about settlement can thus be seen as key scenarios in Israeli collective life: they
both formulate appropriate goals and suggest effective action for achieving them. We would
therefore argue that Baba Baruch's efforts should be seen as basically similar to those made by
the early Zionists (Cohen 1977), Gush Emunim (Aran 1991), and Jerusalem's mayor, Teddy
Kollek. All of them emphasize "making" Israel by transforming the country's landscape:
through building, constructing, assembling, expanding, and creating "facts."
Let us sound a word of caution at this juncture. Our narrative may imply a certain fixity to
the events described; because it is linear it may be misunderstood to argue for an almost in-
evitable causality. By contrast, what we would like to emphasize is that the process of charis-
matization has been characterized by setbacks, by a great deal of uncertainty (especially at the
beginning, before Baruch had secured his position and put his whole organizational apparatus
into effect), and by a precariousness sometimes very difficult to convey in an article such as
this, with its limited mode of presentation. The process of charismatization has also been char-
acterized by intentionality: Baba Sali's grave could easily have become a sacred center without
Baruch's intervention and "invention," but the scope would have been very different. How-
ever, the fixity of the narrative and the intentionality of the actors should not overshadow the
fact that charismatization is a precarious process open to contestation. While Baba Sali's stature
as a venerated luminary appears to be well established, Baba Baruch has not yet acquired a
similar position. His role as a saint in his own right is still debatable and revocable.

conclusion

In this article we have focused on the charismatization of two members of the Abu-Hatse
family: Baba Sali and Baba Baruch. We have argued that Baba Baruch "manufacture
risma using modern means in order to achieve premeditated goals and in line with expe
of public life in contemporary Israel. It is not accidental that we have used metaphors
from the worlds of the media and realtors and boosters: despite the use of a traditional
modern means have been indispensable to the successful "selling" of the saints.
We have shown that while the mythologization of Baba Sali has been only indirectly af
by ongoing political and social trends in Israel, Baba Baruch's quest for legitimation is
rooted in the present historical moment. Yet the two processes are not only interrelate
are also mutually reinforcing: the creation of Baba Sali's image as a "saint for our ti
been facilitated by his son's deliberate and sophisticated efforts; the latter's status and
in turn have been, of course, steadily augmented by the father's continued popularity.
of conclusion let us stress the wider significance of our analysis.

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 We argue, with Geertz, that the analyst of charisma must take into account the cultural sym-
bols and context within which claims to the legitimate "carriage" of charismatic qualities are
formulated. Our case illustrates two types of cultural idiom in which claims to charisma can be
articulated: the traditional-Moroccan and the modern-Israeli. Just as the former encompasses
a set of assumptions about "saintly" circumspection and pious behavior, so the latter is pred-
icated on an ethos of "doing" and building the Jewish nation and state. We also contend that,
in studying contemporary charisma, one must examine the "modern" technological and ad-
ministrative means used to amplify processes of charismatization, processes that also exist in
other, technologically less advanced societies. These means include the media, which broad-
cast claims to charisma, and industry, which creates material objects for the sedimentation of
charisma. Finally, we suggest that the metaphor of "manufacture" is crucial to the study of
charisma. For that metaphor allows us to see charisma as something processual, tenuous, so-
cially constructed, and, therefore, amenable to conscious use and manipulation.

Acknowledgments. Fieldwork was carried out between 1986 and 1989 and supported by the Truman
Institute, the Shaine Centre, the Jerusalem Center for Anthropological Studies, and the Koret Foundation.
We would like to thank Efrat Ben-Zeev and Tania Hertzberg for aid during fieldwork, and four anonymous
reviewers for comments on an earlier version of the article.

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686 american ethnologist

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newspapers

Jerusalem Post. 17 June 1988, 2 February 1990, 6 February 1990.

Kol-Bi LeBeer-Sheva VelaNegev. 13 January 1989.
Yediot Akharonot. 10 January 1989.

submitted 8 July 1991

accepted 23 October 1991

the making of modern saints 687

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