David Encaoua · January 2025 · Manuscript / Personal blog
Each year, in Dimona and then in Netanya, hundreds of families — some bearing the name Encaoua, others simply come because the memory of this man moves them — gather for the hilloula of Rabbi Raphaël Encaoua of Salé.
The hilloula — from the Hebrew word meaning “praise” or “mystical wedding” — is the commemoration of the day of death of a holy rabbi. In the Moroccan Jewish tradition, this day is paradoxically a day of joy: the saint has joined the true world, the world from which he can intercede for us.
Rabbi Raphaël Encaoua was born in Salé in 1848 and died in that same city in 1935. During his lifetime, he was recognized as a tsaddik — a righteous man — endowed with powers of healing and clairvoyance. His tomb in Salé was, before the exodus of the Jews from Morocco, one of the most frequented places of pilgrimage in the kingdom.
In 1928, seven years before his death, he was interviewed by a journalist. In this exceptional conversation, he recounted the family oral tradition: the expulsion from Séville, Éphraïm's journey toward Tlemcen, the gradual settlement in Morocco. He knew by heart the names of his ancestors over ten generations.
"Our family, he told me through family transmission, bears the weight of exile and the grace of return. We were driven out of Séville, we were welcomed in Tlemcen, we planted vines in Morocco. And one day, our children will return to Israel."
The prophecy was fulfilled. Haïm Encaoua, his descendant, lived in Dimona until 2001.