I think the world is upside down. Arab despots are looking to rabbis for blessings and divine assistance to help them continue leading their countries and protect them from attack?
Do they suddenly think their own clerics and imams and holy people are not good enough and they have to seek out Israel's holy rabbis and mekubalim?
It was just publicized that Libyan President Moammar Qaddafi had asked, 25 years ago, Rav Pinto from Kiryat Malachi for an amulet to protect him. At the time, after refusing at first, he eventually prepared the amulet from a combination of afikomen matza, esrog and channukah oil, and Qaddafi was saved from the missile attacks by US President Ronald Reagan. (source: Kikar)
Was it because of Rav Pinto's amulet? I don't know, but some people are convinced that it was. Has Qaddafi survived the latest western attacks on his country until now also because of the amulet? It is impossible to know, but some people believe he is being protected by it.
And if Moammar Qaddafi is not enough, after all he is eccentric and possibly even Jewish, now something stranger is being publicized. Syrian President Bashir al Assad has reportedly been asking and inviting Israeli rabbi and mekubal Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto of Ashdod to come to Syria on a trip to visit hoily grave sites and daven on behalf of the government and offer spiritual protection. Assad supposedly gauranteed him complete protection and kosher food. (source: bhol)
Contact was first initiated through Jack Avital, the head of the Jewish Syrian expat community in the UNited States, who is reportedly friendly with Assad and maintains a good relationship to the benefit of the remaining Jewish community in Syria. After initially refusing, Assad persisted in his request and has even sent the Syrian Ambassador to the US to invite Rabbi Pinto. Supposedly he is still refusing to go.
In Morocco and Western Arfica at least, Jewish magicians were traditionally viewed as the most powerful - and dangerous...
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