Rabbi Meir Abuchatzeira (Baba Meir) was the eldest son of the Baba Sali. In 1965, he
made Aliyah from Morocco and settled in Ashdod; he was very close to Chabad, having
served for many years as the head of the Chabad Yeshiva in Midelt, Morocco.
In 1962, when he was still living in Morocco, the Israeli Mossad conducted “Operation
Yachin,” a giant effort to resettle about eighty-thousand Moroccan Jews in the Holy
Land. During that time, a Jew named Yitzchak Turgeman came Baba Meir, explaining
that he very much wanted to join the wave of people making Aliyah, but he was anxious:
He was uneducated, and completely illiterate. Unable to even read or write, how would
he support himself and get around in a new country? Baba Meir told him, “Make the trip
and don’t worry. G-d takes care of everyone and everything, and He surely knows how to
take care of you, too.” When Rabbi Meir saw that the man was still hesitant, he added,
"Know that the fact that you are illiterate will help you find a livelihood."
So it was. Like so many others, Yitzchak Turgeman immigrated to Israel, where he was
given an apartment in designated immigrant housing. It wasn’t long before he found
himself waiting on line at the employment office, where his fears started gnawing at him.
“There are so many other people here are educated, many even with university degrees.
How can I compete with anyone if I can’t even read or write?” When his turn came, he
introduced himself as a new immigrant from Morocco looking for work, and without
thinking he blurted out, “But I don’t know how to read or write.” Instantly, he regretted
it; who says such things during an employment interview? But then he remembered Baba
Meir’s promise. “Trust the words of the tzaddik” he told himself, and this put his mind at
ease.
Back in his apartment a few hours later, he received a call from the Israeli Defense
Ministry. “Come for an interview at our headquarters first thing tomorrow morning,” a
voice said tersely.” And so, at exactly seven-thirty the next morning, he arrived at the
“Kiryah” (Israeli military headquarters) in Tel Aviv. He loitered around waiting for
someone to call him for his appointment. People came and went, but nobody paid any
attention to him. He began to think someone had played a big prank on him, but at noon
a clerk approached him and called him inside. After his interview, he was informed that
he was hired for an important job: “Our national defense company Rafael develops some
of the most advanced weapons in the world; in the course of our work we accumulate a
vast amount of paperwork, which must be shredded daily. But for security purposes, we
need someone we know will not read any of the classified material before shredding it.
This whole morning, we kept an eye on you. We left newspapers and magazines lying
around, to see if you would pick one up and read it, but you didn’t. In fact, at one point
you were so bored you finally picked up a newspaper, but you held it upside down! It is
clear that you truly don’t know how to read—and that’s the kind of person we need for
this job!”
Turgeman ended up working at Rafael Industries for many years. Even when he passed
retirement age, he was kept on staff because the company couldn’t find another hire who
couldn’t read quite like him.
