Tafilalt

“ With regard to the products of Tafilet, the most important without doubt are the dates, and it is from this culture that the inhabitants are enabled to exist at all. Not only are they sent by caravan all over Morocco, but there are merchants of Fez who ship large quantities to London, and we often eat here in the centre of civilisation dates that are grown in this far-away and little-known oasis, and which have been carried on mule or donkey back over the hot [292] arid desert and the snowy passes of the Atlas Mountains. ”

“ The united rivers, flowing south and passing through Tialallil, drain the district of El Khanek, south of which the Wad Ziz irrigated the oasis of Medaghra, then Ertib, and finally, viâ Tizimi, Tafilet is reached, where by a wonderful system of irrigation some 400 square miles [267] of desert are put under cultivation. It is only after rains that the Wad Ziz and Wad Gheris, which unite at the southern end of the Tafilet oasis, ever reach the great lake, or marsh, Dayet ed Daura, where the sand exhausts the water. ”

“ The cutting off of this water-supply by the Berbers higher up the valley is a constant cause of warfare. Several other small channels from the [273] Ziz reach Ghorfa and Tanijiud, all eventually becoming exhausted in cultivation or in the desert. The principal ksar of Tanijiud is that of Ulad Yusef, who are, as their name implies (“sons of Joseph”) , Arabs. This ksar is situated on the extreme edge of the oasis, and almost in the desert, amongst the bare stony hills found on this, the north-east portion of Tafilet. ”

“ The goings on of this man’s sons had become a byword throughout Morocco, and no young girl in the district was safe from their molestation. The old man himself may have been innocent enough of all crime; but the native Government very justly remarked that a man who could not govern his own sons could scarcely be trusted to look after a tribe of his fellow-men. So troops were despatched secretly to Dukála for fear of his treasure being carried away by members of his family, and the same day as he was seized at Tafilet his house was surrounded and his property carried off. ”

“ A few miles outside the limit of the palm-groves of Ferkla the road passes between two conical hills, of no great altitude, that on the right (south) being, however, the larger of the two. On the slope of the smaller one a ruined saint’s tomb stands; but I was unable to find out the name of the man whose bones lie in this desolate spot. On my return journey from Tafilet we followed another road more to the south, which passes to the farther side of the southernmost of these two hills, near the small settlement of Islef, a division of the tribe of Aït Merghad. ”

“ One old man, the wit of the party, could not get over the fact of my returning in a new character, and remarked, “I have always heard Tafilet was a terrible place. How bad it must be when it changes Shereefs into Christians!” and then added, fearful that his joke might offend, “After all, the Christians are the best; they buy our walnuts and our almonds and pay for them, and Shereefs want everything for nothing.” There is no doubt we created a good impression in Agurzga, the few cups of tea the men drank with us being a luxury some of them had never tasted before ”

“ THE ASCENT OF THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS. On the afternoon of November 1 a start was eventually made for our journey of exploration. My party consisted of the same men as had accompanied me from Saffi, with the addition of a dull and lazy negro, whom I had taken into my employ on the recommendation of a native of Tafilet to whom I had confided my plan. ”

“ Paragraph 6 — A lefty who does all his work with his left hand puts his Tefillin on his "left hand" which is the right hand of all people. And if he uses both hands, he places them on the left of all people. If he writes with his right hand and does all other work with his left hand, or if he writes with his left hand and does all other work with his right hand, there are those who say to put the Tefillin on his weaker hand because we "need the weaker hand." ”

“ One is prohibited to put Tefillin on at night since he may forget [that he has them on] and sleep in them. If he puts them on before the sun sets and it happens to get dark, even if he wears them the whole night, it is permitted. [However] we do not teach [people] to do this. If he did not remove the Tefillin once the sun set since he had no place to guard them and therefore, left them on to protect them... ”

“ The presence of these canals, however, was a relief, for from Tabsibast we had seen no water, and the heat had been very great during the afternoon. Although we carried enough in a stone jar on the back of one of our donkeys to assuage thirst, there was not a sufficient quantity to allow us to bathe our weary and blistered feet. The formation of the soil of this desert—in fact, of all the country from Ghresat to Tafilet—is [192] such as to render walking very unpleasant, though the roads are nearly all level. ”

“ In all probability the Berbers were dwelling there in thatch huts, and it was not until the Arab invasion that buildings of tabia, or native concrete, were raised, the sole material at hand at Tafilet, where stones are not to be found. We find that the divisions of the Berber people at this time (88 A.H.) inhabiting that and the surrounding district were the Beni Mgil, who to this day are a powerful tribe on the plains of the Wad Muluya, and the Dhu Mansur, though the second name is distinctly Arabic, and is probably a translation into that language of the Berber name, now unfortunately lost. ”

“ This, as he said, was his itinerary, but why he should have come round by Tafilet, he did not explain. He certainly was not a personable man; a weasel-faced, pale, and fair-haired Parisian “voyou,” thin, active, and half-starved, foot-sore and weary, dressed in rags, and speaking a jargon of bad Arabic, compared to which that spoken by the Persian and myself became as the language of the Khoreish, or the best literal Arabic which Cairo boasts. ”

“ Tafilelt is the place of general meeting of all the merchants who go to Timbuctoo. 3
The territory of Tafilelt contains no towns, but abounds in fortresses with mud-walls 4, which the natives call El Kassar, and which contain from three to four hundred families; in these fortresses there is a public market (in Arabic, soke) every week, where the inhabitants purchase provisions, &c.
The natives of Tafilelt are descendants of the shereefs 5 or princes of Marocco, and are therefore of the Imperial family. ”

“ The Tefilin are actually the letters of the Holy Name. Therefore, "Your head upon you is like the Carmel" REFERS TO the Tefilin of the head. "And the hair (Heb. dalat) from dalah (poor) of your head" (Song of Songs 7:6) refers to the Tefilin of the hand, WHICH IS MALCHUT, as she is poor, in comparison to above, TO ZEIR ANPIN. Thus, she achieves perfection as above! "a king is caught in its tresses" (Ibid. 6) , that he is tied down and tightly held in those compartments for the purpose of being properly united with that Holy Name. Therefore, whoever puts them on receives the image of Elohim. ”

“ The governor was indignant that the king's subjects should be held in continued jeopardy of their lives by their unprincipled leaders, ordered the expedition stopped, and sent the licentiate Tafur with two ships to bring the wanderers home. Father Luque, however, wrote to Pizarro not to abandon the enterprise. The arrival of Tafur at the island places Pizarro in a most trying position. And we can almost forget the hideousness of the man's nature, which assumes yet darker deformity as we proceed, when he rises under the inspiration of his energy in defiance of destiny. ”

“ Of the foundation of Sijilmassa the natives seem to know but little. They, as is nearly always the case, connect its origin with the Rumin, or Romans, a term the Moslems use for any nation not professing Islam, and which is far more likely in this case to mean the [285] Amazighs or original Berbers than any one else; for, as already mentioned, it is quite clear that the Romans never reached as far as this, though I am inclined to believe the Carthaginians, if never actually in Tafilet, approached it very closely. ”

“ For they [the Ba'al Tefilah's associates] had great pity on them about having gone so off in the lust for money; especially since the Ba'al Tefilah had said that they could go further and further astray, therefore these people went to that country. Perhaps they could restore them from their nonsense.
[So, the Ba'al Tefilah's people] entered the country and approached one of them who was apparently a low-status person whom they called an animal. And they began to talk with him, that truthfully money is not a purpose at all, and the main purpose is only serving Hashem, and so forth. ”

“ One who puts on tefillin shel yad and says the blessing and at the beginning of tightening it the tefillin-knot comes apart, requiring tying a new knot, if one's concentration has indeed not faltered, one does not need to make a new blessing. If the shel yad loosens before one puts on the shel rosh, one tightens the shel yad again and does not need to make a new blessing, but if one has already put on the shel rosh and only later does the shel yad come loose, one then has to tighten with a blessing. ”

“ From Imasin to Askura was again a shorter march than usual, but there was no choice of where we were to stay, for beyond Askura lie some fifteen miles of weary desert—the Sebaa Shaabat—before reaching the next inhabited district, Ghresat. We camped near some large tamarisk-trees, a few hundred yards from the palatial residence of a Sheikh, who sent men to guard the camp at night.
Passing Ghresat at mid-day the following day, we reached Agurzga before dark, and pitched below one of the great ksor that crown the eminences of rock high above the river. Here, too, much poverty exists ”

“ If you wish, I can say because here there is danger of sleep overpowering him. Or, if you wish, I can say because they want to exclude the opinion of those who say that the evening prayer is only voluntary. [84] Therefore they teach us that it is obligatory.
The Master said: [85] 'Let him recite Shema' and say the Tefillah'. This accords with the view of R. Johanan. [86] For R. Johanan says: Who inherits the world to come? The one who follows the Ge'ullah [87] immediately with the evening Tefillah. ”

“ The people of Tafilet considered it as a judgment from their Prophet for their injustice; and, to appease him, they made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and easily prevailed on a Xeriffe, a descendant of Mahomet, named Muley Aly, who resided in a town near Medina, to accompany them back to this country. In the mean time, the seasons having become more genial, the harvests were so abundant, that this credulous and superstitious people attributed the change entirely to the arrival of the pious Xeriffe. He was unanimously proclaimed King of Tafilet, by the name of Muley Xeriffe ”

“ And thereby they enliven and establish all the fallen ones, that they should not be downcast and not despair of the deliverance of their souls, as mentioned. Until they merit to return to Hashem, and then the fall and descent becomes the ultimate ascent. For, the essence of the fall is specifically on account of this, in order that they should begin living anew, as explained elsewhere. That is, that his vitality and brains should begin again and be renewed, which this is the aspect of tefillin, the aspect of “Venifliynu” etc. ”

“ Then Teshumai Tewindrow ran down and kissed and hugged Taffy very much indeed; but the Head Chief of the Tribe of Tegumai took Tegumai by the top-knot feathers and shook him severely.
‘Explain! Explain! Explain!’ cried all the Tribe of Tegumai.
‘Goodness’ sakes alive!’ said Tegumai. ‘Let go of my top-knot. Can’t a man break his carp-spear without the whole countryside descending on him? You’re a very interfering people.’
‘I don’t believe you’ve brought my Daddy’s black-handled spear after all,’ said Taffy. ”

“ Thus, the wearing of Tephillin216 or phylacteries has, on the one hand, been continually condemned as a meaningless superstition, and a pretext for formalism and hypocrisy. But, on the other hand, Maimonides, who can in no way be suspected of superstition or mysticism, described their importance in the following words: “Great is the holiness of the Tephillin; for as long as they are on the arm and head of man he is humble and God-fearing, and feels no attraction for frivolity or idle things, nor has he any evil thoughts, but will turn his heart to the words of truth and righteousness.” ”

“ Oth 10 And all this is the aspect of tefillin, which are the abovementioned aspect of Arikhath Apayim, which is the aspect of the new brains and vitality that we draw by the mitzwah of tefillin, from the elders in sanctity who receive from the highest elder who is the blind one. ”

“ Paragraph 2 — On Chol HaMoed it is prohibited to wear tefillin for the same reason, namely that Chol HaMoed is also an אות (sign) . Rem"a: There are those who maintain that one is obligated to wear tefillin on Chol HaMoed [Beit Yosef quoting the Rosh] and the custom in all these regions is to put on tefillin with a beracha. ”

“ Then they adopted the Stranger-man (a genuine Tewara of Tewar) into the Tribe of Tegumai, because he was a gentleman and did not make a fuss about the mud that the Neolithic ladies had put into his hair. But from that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy's fault) , very few little girls have ever liked learning to read or write. Most of them prefer to draw pictures and play about with their Daddies—just like Taffy. [140]
This is the story of Taffimai Metallumai carved on an old tusk a very long time ago by the Ancient Peoples. ”