Ovadia Yosef - WikiHQ

Ovadia Yosef (, ; September 24, 1920 – October 7, 2013), also known as Maran (; ), was an Iraqi-born Talmudic scholar, hakham, posek, and the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 1972 to 1983. Also known as Gadol Yisrael ("great one of Israel"), He was also a founder and longtime spiritual leader of Israel's religious Shas party.

Biography

thumbnail|Yosef as a child with his family

thumbnail|Yosef in the 1940s or 1950s

Early life

Yosef was born in Baghdad, British occupied Iraq, to Yaakov ben Ovadia and his wife, Gorgia. In 1924, when he was four years old, he immigrated to Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, with his family. In Jerusalem, the family adopted the surname "Ovadia". Later in life, he changed his surname to his middle name, "Yosef", to avoid the confusion of being called "Ovadia Ovadia".

The family settled in Jerusalem's Beit Yisrael neighborhood, where Yaakov operated a grocery store. The family was poor, and Yosef was forced to work at a young age. His rosh yeshiva (dean) petitioned his father to ensure he would not miss school to help the family. He learned in in the Bukharim quarter, where his passion and skill for Torah study was apparent. His literary career began at age 9 with a commentary on Reshit Chochmah, which he penned in the margins.

In 1933, Sadqa Hussein prevailed upon Yaakov to send his son to Porat Yosef Yeshiva.

Yosef composed his first sefer, together with two friends, called Machberet Ha'atakat Hidot.

Residing in Egypt

In 1947, Yosef was invited to Cairo by , founder of yeshiva Ahavah VeAchvah, to teach in his school. At Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel's request, Yosef also served as head of the Cairo beth din (rabbinical court). Yosef considered religious observance lax in Egypt, both in the Jewish community at large and among its rabbis. One of the major halakhic issues was the lack of any organised system of kashrut, which led to conflict between him and other members of the community. Due to these events Yosef resigned from his position just two years after arriving in Cairo. About a year later he returned to what in the meantime had become Israel.

Return to Israel

Back in Israel, Yosef began studying at midrash "Bnei Zion", then headed by Tzvi Pesach Frank. He also served on the rabbinical court in Petah Tikva. In his first term as a dayan (rabbinic judge), at age 30, he wrote a halakhic ruling favoring Yibbum over Halitza, which contradicted a religious ruling made by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel a year earlier, which had forbidden Yibbum.

In 1951–1952 he published his first halakha sefer, Hazon Ovadia, on the laws of Passover. The book won much praise and received the approval of the two Chief Rabbis of Israel at the time, Ben-Zion Meir Hai Uziel and Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog. Two years later he founded Or HaTorah Yeshiva for gifted Sephardic yeshiva students. This yeshiva (which was not open long) was the first of many he established, later with the help of his sons, to facilitate Torah education for Sephardic Jews, to provide leadership for the community in future generations. In 1953–54 and 1955–56 he published the first two volumes of his major work, ', which also received much praise.

Between 1958 and 1965, Yosef served as a dayan in the Jerusalem district Beth Din. He was then appointed to the in Jerusalem, becoming the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Tel Aviv in 1968, a position he held until his election as Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel in 1972.

Rishon LeZion

In 1972, Yosef was elected Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel by a majority vote of 81 to 68, replacing Yitzhak Nissim. His candidacy was criticised by some, as he was competing against an incumbent chief rabbi for the first time in the history of that office. The election process was characterised by tension and political turmoil due to the and the tense relations between Yosef and Nissim. In the same election, Shlomo Goren was chosen as the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, with whom Yosef's relationship proved difficult. The Chief Rabbinate Council was controlled by Goren, and for some time thereafter Yosef felt there was no point in attending its sessions.

Entry into politics

In 1984, Yosef founded the Shas party in response to minimal representation of Sephardic Jews in the Ashkenazi-dominated Agudat Yisrael. It has since become a formidable political force, becoming a part of the coalition in most of the elected governments. He later took a less active role in politics, but remained the party's spiritual leader until his death.

Weekly lectures

For over 50 years, Yosef gave weekly Saturday night lessons in the Yazdim synagogue. These lectures were live-streamed by satellite as well as recorded, with over 100,000 people worldwide watching them.

Assassination plot

In April 2005, Israeli security services arrested three people whom they accused of plotting to kill Yosef. The Shin Bet claimed they were all members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. One of the three, Musa Darwish, was convicted on December 15, 2005, of Yosef's attempted murder, and of throwing firebombs at vehicles on the Jerusalem-Ma'aleh Adumim road. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and three years' probation. A second man, Salah Hamouri, said he was innocent of the charges, but accepted a sentence of seven years in exchange for admitting his guilt.

Family

When Yosef was 24, he married the 17-year-old , who was born in Syria to Avraham HaLevi Fattal. They had eleven children.

Adina Bar-Shalom (b. 1945) is the founder of the first academic college for Haredi women in Jerusalem. She studied design at the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design with her father's approval. She is married to , former Chaver Beth Din of the Supreme Rabbinical Court.
Ya'akov Yosef (1947–2013) was an Israeli rabbi and politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Shas between 1984 and 1988. He is the father of Yonatan Yosef.
Malca Sasson was a nursery teacher for over 30 years.
Avraham Yosef (b. 1949) is the former Chief Rabbi of Holon, Israel, and a Sephardi representative on the Chief Rabbinate Council.
Yafa Cohen.
Yitzhak Yosef (b. 1952) is the former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Hazon Ovadia, and the author of a popular set of books on Jewish law called Yalkut Yosef.
Rivka Chikotai, twin sister of Sara, is married to , one of the chief rabbis of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut.
Sara Toledano, twin sister of Rivka, is an artist, Head of the Yabiya Omer Beit Midrash, and an Av Beit Din in Jerusalem. She is married to Mordechai Toledano.
David Yosef (b. 1960), married to Sofia, is the head of the Yechaveh Da'at Kollel, the chief neighbourhood rabbi of Har Nof, and credited with introducing his best friend Aryeh Deri to his father. He was appointed to Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah after his father died. On September 29, 2024, he was appointed to the role of Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, the Rishon LeZion.
Leah Butbul.
Moshe Yosef (b. 1966), a rabbi married to Yehudit. Both lived and cared for Yosef in his apartment. Moshe is the head of the Badatz Beit Yosef kashrut agency and of the Maor Yisrael Talmud Torah, which also publishes his father's works.

Final years and death

Yosef resided in Jerusalem's Har Nof neighbourhood. Yosef remained an active public figure in political and religious life in his capacity as the spiritual leader of the Shas political party, and through his regular weekly sermons.

On January 13, 2013, Yosef collapsed during Shacharit at his synagogue in Har Nof and was having difficulty using his left hand. After being seen by a physician at his home, he was hospitalized at Hadassah Medical Center after suffering what was believed to be a minor stroke.

On September 21, 2013, because of his worsening health, Yosef was admitted to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. Two days after undergoing surgery for the implantation of a pacemaker on September 22, Yosef was sedated and placed on a respirator. He died in the hospital on October 7, 2013, after a "general systemic failure". His funeral in Jerusalem was the largest in Israel's history, with an estimated attendance of 850,000. Some religious authorities have said it may have been the largest in-gathering of Jews since the Second Temple period; other estimates put the number in attendance lower, between 273,000 and 450,000. Yosef was buried beside his wife in the Sanhedria Cemetery. Security guards were also posted at the cemetery, where Yosef's grave became a pilgrimage site for thousands of people.

Halakhic approach and worldview

Meta-halakha: Restoring the past glory

Yosef frequently made use of the slogan "Restore past glory" (; ) as a metaphor embodying both his social and halakhic agenda.

On a social level, it is widely viewed as a call to pursue a political agenda that will restore the pride of the Mizrahi Jews in Israeli society, who historically suffered from discrimination and were generally of lower socioeconomic status than their Ashkenazi counterparts.

From a halakhic perspective, the metaphor is more complex. It is widely agreed by rabbis and secular researchers alike that the 'crown' of the metaphor refers to the halakhic supremacy Yosef attaches to the rulings of Yosef Karo. According to Yosef's approach, Karo is crowned as the Mara D'Atra of the Land of Israel, and thus all Jews living within his realm of authority are bound by his rulings. Yosef says this explicitly and strongly in Yalkut Yosef:

Some disagreement persists over exactly whom Yosef considers bound by Karo's rulings.

Ratzon Arusi argues that Yosef distinguishes between his ideal and reality. Ideally, all Jews of the Land of Israel should be bound by Karo's rulings, but practicality dictates that Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews should unite under them first. As Arusi puts it:

argues that Yosef adopts a melting pot approach, in that he seeks to unify the traditions of all Jews in Israel, Sephardic and Ashkenazi alike. Zohar claims that Yosef's main distinction is not between Ashkenazim and Sephardim but between the Land of Israel and the diaspora. In his view, Yosef seeks to apply Karo's rulings to the entire Land of Israel, but not necessarily outside it. According to Zohar, this represents an anti-Diaspora and "anti-Colonialist" approach, since it seeks to strip the various immigrant communities of their traditions from their countries of origin and replace them with the custom of the Land of Israel, rather than importing and implanting foreign customs in Israel. He compares Yosef and religious reformers such as Martin Luther and Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, and claims that Yosef has adopted a religious restorative-reformist worldview. Specifically, he argues that Yosef's halakhic approach is not, as Yosef attempts to portray it, a return to a traditional form of Sephardic ruling, but rather an innovative formulation of a particular Sephardic approach to halakha that Yosef himself fashioned.

Binyamin Lau disagrees with both of the preceding interpretations. According to Lau, Yosef claims that all Sephardic Jews accepted Karo's rulings as binding in the diaspora, but over time deviated from them. Presently, upon their return to the Land of Israel where Karo is the Mara D'atra, they should return to adhering to his rulings. Thus, Lau believes that Yosef directs his rulings only at Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, since the Ashkenazi Jews never accepted Karo's rulings. Lau views Yosef as operating on two fronts: the first against the Ashkenazi leadership that seeks to apply Ashkenazi rulings and customs to the Sephardim, and the second against the Sephardic and Mizrahi communities, in demanding that they unite under Karo's rulings.

In any case, it is agreed that alongside the conservative aspects of his approach to halakha there are also significant reforms: his preference for Karo's rulings and his preference for leniency over chumra. The fulfillment of his halakhic vision has entailed significant clashes with his Ashkenazi counterparts. Of his predecessors in the Tel Aviv-Yafo Rabbinate, Yosef wrote:

Preference for leniency

Yosef adopted the Talmudic dictum "". Therefore, one of his fundamental principles of halakhic ruling is that lenient rulings should be preferred over chumra. Yosef saw this as one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Sephardic approach to halakha versus the Ashkenazi approach. In one ruling, he quoted Chaim Joseph David Azulai as saying:

Yosef considered this principle an ideal, so that if

In Yosef's opinion, the severity of Ashkenazi poskim results from their method of teaching and lack of familiarity with the Mishnah, Talmud, and poskim. In a 1970 article about Jacob Saul Elyashar, Yosef wrote:

Yosef regarded ruling with severity as especially harmful in the current generation ("the generation of freedom and liberty"), since strict ruling might lead people not to comply with the halakha. In Yabia Omer, he writes: "And truly, the growth of chumrot leads to leniency in the body of the Torah."

Examples of lenient rulings

Following this principle of leniency Yosef made a number of halakhic rulings which are significantly more lenient than those made by his Ashkenazi Haredi counterparts. Among them are:

That it is permissible for boys and girls to study together up to the age of 9.
That a married woman who covers her hair may expose a few centimeters of hair from beneath the covering at the front.
That it is permissible for a female widow or divorcée to wear a wig as a head covering, despite prohibiting it for married women (see below).
That widows of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, even unrecoverable soldiers, would not be unable to remarry.
That it is permissible for unmarried women to leave their hair loose and untied.
That, when investigating whether a person might be a mamzer, as much plausible deniability as possible ought to be granted, so as to avoid condemning the person to mamzer status.

The least of evils

Yosef aimed to encourage maximal observance of mitzvot among as many Israelis as possible. To achieve this, "he is willing to follow a halakhic policy which, on the one hand, will minimize violations of the halakha, but on the other, concedes absolute adherence to the halakha". This is evident in a number of his rulings: providing kashrut certification to a restaurant that serves milk and meat; the slaughter of a chicken where there is a concern of it being terefah; and the wearing of pants by women.

Yosef applied a policy of turning a blind eye to deviations from the halakha in circumstances where, if strict adherence to the halakha were required, it is likely that it would not be followed at all. Examples of this include the recital of the priestly benediction by Kohanim who do not have a religious lifestyle, and a shaliach tzibur or person performing a Torah reading who shaves with a razor.

Sinai Adif

In the Talmudic debate over , Yosef was of the opinion that Sinai is preferable. Specifically, he emphasizes that the Sephardic system of learning, which emphasizes learning halakha in depth, is superior to the common approach in many Ashkenazi schools, which relies on deep analysis of gemara employing pilpul, without reaching to the halakhic conclusions. This preference is based upon his support for ruling halakha on practical contemporary issues rather than ruling halakha as a purely theoretical pursuit. In a eulogy he wrote for Yaakov Ades, his teacher at Porat Yosef Yeshiva, he said:

According to Yosef, the preoccupation with pilpul at the expense of learning halakha in depth causes lack of knowledge among Ashkenazi poskim, which in turn leads to unnecessary severity in making halakhic rulings, since the posek is unaware of lenient rulings and approaches to halakha used by previous rabbis upon which the posek could rely to rule leniently.

Attitude towards Kabbalah

Yosef was sometimes willing to accept rulings which rely on the rulings of the Ari zal, provided that these do not contradict rulings by Karo. In some instances, particularly in Jewish prayer, Yosef championed Kabbalistic considerations even at the expense of Karo's rulings. Nevertheless, in many cases, he came out strongly against the rulings, saying, "We have no business with mysticism", and rejecting rulings based upon the Zohar, and the Kabbalah more generally. This position is contrary to many (but not all) traditional long-standing Sephardic rulings on halakha, including by many Sephardic poskim to this day. In contrast with the position of Chaim Joseph David Azulai, who wrote that, "None may reply after (i.e. dispute the rulings of) the Ari", Yosef argues that no special weight should be attached to the rulings of the Ari, and the ordinary principles of halakhic ruling should continue to apply. He wrote:

Yosef's attitude towards the Kabbalah, the rulings of the Ari, and consequently the rulings of the Ben Ish Hai have been the cause of strong disagreements between him and Jewish immigrants from the Muslim world in Israel, especially the Jews of Iraq. The rulings of the Ben Ish Hai were at the heart of the disagreement between him and the Chief Rabbis Yitzhak Nissim and Mordechai Eliyahu.

Attitude towards minhag and traditions

Yosef gave strong preference to the written word, and did not attribute significant weight to minhagim and traditions which are not well anchored in the halakha. For example, he expressed opposition to two minhagim observed in the synagogues of North African Jewry: standing during the reading of the Ten Commandments, and the involvement of the congregation in certain parts of the prayer service. His attempts to change popular and deeply rooted traditions have led to opposition to his approach among some North African rabbis.

Breslov Hasidim have the custom of going on a pilgrimage to the tomb of Nachman of Breslov in Uman for Rosh Hashanah. Yosef was highly critical of this practice, and has stated:

Halakhic rulings

Yosef is generally considered one of the leading halakhic authorities, particularly for Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, who bestowed upon him the honorific title of "Maran".

His best-known legal rulings include:

In 1973, as Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel, he ruled, based on the Radbaz, Maharikash, and other opinions, that the Ethiopian Beta Israel were full Jews and should be brought to Israel. A number of other authorities later made similar rulings, including the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Shlomo Goren, who took rulings from Abraham Isaac Kook, and other poskim. Other notable poskim, from non-Zionist Ashkenazi circles, preferred a giyur l'chumra which served as a protective measure, for the Ethiopian Jews to immerse themselves before immigrating, to avoid any doubt.
That it is legitimate and permissible to give territory from the Land of Israel to achieve a genuine peace. When the Oslo Accords were followed by the Second Intifada, this opinion was retracted.
Supported the sale of the land during the Sabbatical year, following the Sephardic tradition.
That it is prohibited for fellow Jews to ascend the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in this day and age due to its extreme sanctity and the people's inability to purify themselves with the ash-water of the Red Heifer.
Ordered the Shas political party to vote in favour of a law recognizing brain death as death for legal purposes. The Ashkenazi Haredi political party United Torah Judaism voted against the law on instructions from their spiritual leader, Yosef Shalom Eliashiv.
Allowing the wives of IDF soldiers who have been missing in action for a long time to remarry, a verdict known as "the release of agunot" (התרת עגונות).
That a woman should not wear a wig (sheitel) as a form of hair covering, but should wear headscarves (or snoods / hats / berets) instead. (According to Jewish law, married women must cover their hair in public for reasons of modesty. Some women wear sheitels for this purpose.)

Attitude towards the State of Israel and its citizens

Ethiopian Jews

Yosef is often regarded as the pivotal force behind bringing Ethiopian Jews to Israel. In the 1970s, Yosef ruled that Ethiopian Jews were halachically Jewish and campaigned for the Ethiopian aliyah to Israel. Pnina Tamano-Shata said of Yosef: "I started crying, probably in gratitude to all that he's done, the humane form of address, 'our brothers.' He was also a leader. He called on the authorities to save Ethiopia's Jews and bring them to Israel. It shows his great love for others."

Attitude to Zionism

Yosef held a halakhically ambivalent view towards Zionism as the Atchalta De'Geulah (). Many Religious Zionists, in contrast, view Israel as the first flowering of the redemption. In a halakhic ruling regarding Israeli Independence Day, Yosef acknowledged that the Jewish people experienced a miracle with the establishment of the State of Israel; however, since the miracle did not include all of the Jewish people,

Yosef's position could be seen as a middle ground between the Religious Zionists, for whom saying Hallel is compulsory, and the Ashkenazi Haredim, who do not say Hallel at all.

In a newspaper interview in which Shas was accused of being anti-Zionist, Yosef responded: