The secret of Rabbi Pinto's magic

It is doubtful whether the parking lot of one of the biggest event halls in central Israel ever held such a large number of luxury cars as it did one night two months ago, when politicians, ministers, businessmen, security officials, entertainers, well-known athletes and media personalities all attended a magnificent wedding.

Inside, everything was meticulously arranged. Dozens of tables groaned under platters of the best food and bottles of highest-quality alcohol.

Meanwhile, a special tent had been put up in the garden to keep the commotion away from the wedding. This tent had been erected especially for Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, who, even at the wedding of his closest assistant, continued receiving the dozens of people who wished to speak with him.

What was the who's-who of Israeli society doing at the wedding of a rabbi's assistant? Why was a special tent needed for dozens of fans? How did a yeshiva student from Ashdod come to head a global empire and have everyone falling at his feet? Those are just some of the questions being asked on the fringes of the serious case that broke this week.

At only 40 years old, Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto has experienced almost everything in his life. Born in Ashdod, he studied at a haredi yeshiva and built a global empire with thousands of followers all over the world. He founded a charity that took in tens of millions of dollars and on the way passed through the offices of the FBI, fell victim to blackmail, and survived an assassination attempt when a grenade was thrown at his home.

Now Pinto is at the center of a serious case that has gotten some of the police's top brass into trouble. Neither Pinto's followers nor his opponents have managed to crack the secret of his charisma, which has endured despite his troubles. Pinto's paternal grandfather was Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, also known as the Baba Sali, one of the most prominent kabbalists in Jewish history. On his mother's side, he is a great-grandson of Rabbi Haim Pinto, one of the most prominent rabbis of Moroccan Jewry.

Unlike most of the "Babas," Pinto does not advertise himself as a miracle-worker, nor does he wear a long robe. What sets him apart is his unique manner of speech with its nasal intonation, and his incessant rocking.

"I see him as a wise man," says a long-time security official who is close to him. "It has nothing at all to do with religion. I do not have a religious lifestyle, nor do I observe tradition. I know that he does a great deal of charitable work. He is a very good man and very pleasant to be around."

Yossi Bar-Moha, the head of the Journalists' Association, published a book about the Abuhatzeira family called "Saints, Incorporated" in 1995. Although he has been following the world of the kabbalists for many years and often criticizes them, he speaks differently of Pinto.

"Rabbi Pinto is not a miracle-worker," he says. "He is pleasant and charming, unlike most kabbalists, who are aggressive and forceful. It might be said of him that while most kabbalists know much more about fund-raising than about the mystical tradition -- in fact, they know hardly a thing about it -- Rabbi Pinto is known as a genius and a scholar. I am familiar with his work. On the festivals, he spends millions of dollars to help the needy. Here, too, unlike other kabbalists, he receives money from the rich and gives it to the poor.

"Usually, people put their trust in a rabbi's blessing, hoping that they will find healing through it. I personally do not believe in such things or in any supernatural thing, including about Rabbi Pinto, if anyone makes such claims about him. The whole combination of ancestral merit, being likable, running away from miracle-working, concentrating on doing good deeds and the fact that he is humble, pleasant and has a great deal of knowledge about the world in general and the world of finance only helps him."

But it was not being pleasant, refined or even a Torah scholar that made Pinto what he is today. Dr. Haim Schein, a lecturer in the philosophy of law and Jewish law at Sha'arei Mishpat College, a law school in Israel's central region, explains.

"I can understand that people follow him for superficial reasons," he says. "He is a very wise man, he absorbs things extremely quickly, and everyone who goes to him tell him only the truth and he takes in an enormous amount of information. Add to that a phenomenal memory and his family background and you get amazing charisma that attracts many people who under other circumstances have no one to talk to. So when they receive advice from a wise man who also has a spiritual dimension, that combines together and becomes a recipe for success."

Schein adds: "I have spent years around kabbalists, and over the years I have learned that there is an inverse relationship between ostentation and externals and a kabbalist's greatness. The more a person concentrates on externals, the more ostentatious he is, the smaller a kabbalist he is. A real kabbalist is characterized by his disregard of all those superfluous things. But the way Rabbi Pinto's court is run, the way he treats those close to him -- that is the complete opposite."

A haredi commentator says that Pinto's success stems not only from his personality, but also from the needs of the secular and traditional worlds and the rise of the newly religious.

"We live in the instant generation, which is influenced by reality programs," he says. "The rise of reality shows affects the rabbinical world and the world of the newly religious as well. Once, when people became religious, they would do so by probing complicated issues in the Talmud, learning Mishnah and studying the minutiae of the Shulhan Arukh. Take Rabbi Uri Zohar, for example [a popular comedian and movie star of the 1960s and 1970s who later became an Orthodox rabbi]. He became religious not so he could travel to the tomb of Rabbi Nahman of Breslav in Uman or make pilgrimages to the graves of other holy people, but to engage in profound religious study.

"But newly religious people today -- and this also applies to traditional people who respect the traditions of their parents' homes and respect the rabbis -- do not have the strength for meticulous observance of the 'little' commandments. They prefer the easy way, the way of mystical experiences, the Kabbalah. Some go to rabbis who are considered miracle-workers.

"Rabbi Pinto offers something different. He leaves the miracles alone because some rabbis become skeptical the moment you say the word 'miracles' to them. Instead, Rabbi Pinto offers wisdom for life, together with spiritual advantages and his prominent family tree, his ancestral merit. From this perspective, he has become an alternative for the Israeli elite, which cannot afford to get entangled with charlatans who promise miracles. Here they have a rabbi who is wise, likable and pleasant who also knows how to give helpful advice. That is what makes so many people come to him."

Now that the case has broken, it will be interesting to see how his many fans respond.

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