It is midnight in Israel, and three hundred worshipers gather in a floodlit enclosure as they thump tambourines and clap hands in the warm night. They sing ya’ase shalom, which means “he will make peace.” Though the words refer to God, the crowd thinks of another.
“I will clean the people,” says Rabbi Yaakov Ifargan, thirty-four, slinging candles into a brazier until the flame rises six meters and wax sizzles onto the dusty ground. Ifargan is the most prominent new leader in a wave of cabalistic mysticism sweeping Israel, particularly among the 60 percent of the population known as Mizrahis, those who have emigrated from North Africa and the Middle East. Ifargan is a tzaddik, a holy man.
Almost four hours into this ceremony, the rabbi turns to a row of followers confined to their wheelchairs sweating near the fire. “Are you a believer?” he asks. Gabriel Rafael, twenty-two, has multiple sclerosis. People in the crowd raise him by his arms. He takes a few steps, scuffing his feet through the dirt, then collapses into his wheelchair. Those around him wait to hear that a miracle has taken place. What they hear instead is Gabriel say, “I do feel stronger.”
— Matt Rees, “Miracle Makers,”
Time (September 25, 2000)
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