Praise of Zaddikim in North African Jewry's Poems and Liturgy / שבחי צדיקים בשירה ובפיוט של יהודי צפון אפריקה

The expulsion from Spain brought with it the abolition of the recognized, authoritative Spanish center of poetry. In the East, in Yemen and in North Africa branches nourished by the tradition of Spanish poetry took root but they created a new image and moved in their own direction. The paper discusses a new theme of this emerging poetic corpus, Praise of Zaddikim. These poems were elicited by the manner in which Jews of North Africa perceived the Zaddik — a perception based on the Zohar and Kabbalistic lore wherein the Zaddik represents a symbolic picture of one of the aspects of the world of spheres. Added to this concept is the popular belief in the power of the Zaddik, a belief held by both Jews and Arabs. The Zaddik is a righteous man in his life and a saint in his death. Many poems are dedicated to him, poems describing his good deeds and above all the miracles he performed both in his lifetime and with his death. These poems are chanted during the pilgrimage to the Zaddik's grave, a pilgrimage (Hejira) that became an institution in its own right and encouraged a person in distress to go to the saint's grave and seek aid and consolation. The article also reviews briefly various anthologies of liturgical poems dedicated to several well-known Zaddikim.