The Baba Sali's confidant finally reveals his secrets
The sign on the door of the opulent villa in Ashkelon, Israeli’s southern seaside town, reads simply “Golan Family.” The large living room, comfortable sofas, and artwork adorning the walls are all tasteful and obviously expensive, befitting one of the country’s most successful and top-billing lawyers.
But downstairs, there’s a secret. A shrine of sorts, created by attorney David Golan’s alter ego. In the courtroom there’s no hint to his other life — scholar, talmid chacham, and the longtime personal confidant of Rav Yitzchak Abuchatzeira, the Baba Sali ztz”l.
His inner circle knows about this basement, although he doesn’t publicize it, and he rarely speaks about his years-long relationship with the Moroccan tzaddik, mekubal, and miracle worker who came to Eretz Yisrael in 1964 and settled in Netivot, where he was buried after his passing 20 years later.
“Good luck if you can get some good stories out of him,” an Abuchatzeira grandson tells us earlier. “He doesn’t like to talk, but he remembers everything. You can trust everything he says. But he never speaks publicly about this part of his life.”
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