Community Magazine January 2009

THE PRODIGY Hacham sion was born in Jerusalem in 5682/1922 to Hacham Yaakob and Esther levy. Hacham Yaakob was a promi- nent dayan (rabbinical judge) and distin- guished community leader in Morocco, until he migrated to Eress Yisrael to study in Jerusalem’s illustrious Yeshivat bet El. His wife delivered a baby boy the day the family arrived in Jerusalem, and they named him ‘sion’ – one of the biblical names of the holy city. Young sion joined Yeshivat Porat Yosef where he would soon be recognized as one of the yeshiva’s most outstanding students. displaying capabilities well beyond his years, he skipped from 5th to 9th grade. He continued to progress and ultimately established a particularly close relationship with the Rosh Yeshiva, Hacham Ezra Attiah z.t.l. (5647/1887 – 5730/1970). Hacham sion was also privileged to study under some of the foremost experts in various fields of halacha (Jewish law). At just 22 years of age, he received semicha (rabbinic ordination) from Rabbi Mordechai Meyuches for shehita (slaugh- tering) and nikur (removing forbidden fats from a slaughtered animal). Two years later, he received his general rabbinical ordination from four towering luminaries: Hacham ben-sion Meir Hai uziel, Hacham Ezra Attiah, Hacham Yaakov Ades and Hacham Yosef Yedid Halevi. shortly there- after he was ordained as an author- ity on the laws of marriage and divorce. Hacham sion also learned berit mila under Hacham Yaakov sasson, a leading expert in the field. His mastery of these different fields of halachah would serve him well upon becoming the rabbi of Panama’s sephardic community, where he func- tioned as not only the community’s rabbi, but also its mohel and shohet. Preserving the Shabbat Hacham Sion’s first week in Panama was disheartening. On Shabbat morning, the hazan pulled up to the synagogue in his car, entered the building, turned on the lights, and then picked up the phone to call some more men to complete the minyan . “We are not praying in this building today,” the rabbi promptly announced. He insisted on praying only in a place where Shabbat is observed. Albert Dabah a”h offered his home, and they prayed there that Shabbat. Shabbat prayer services had to be held early, because most of the congregants would go to work after the tefilah . And, most of them drove to and from the synagogue. When Hacham Sion first saw people coming to the synagogue in their cars, he broke down crying. It tormented him to witness Shabbat desecration, yet he recognized that the people were not yet ready to hear that they could not to drive to synagogue. He knew that if there was no Shabbat minyan – there would be no community. He decided to come into the synagogue early and stay until everyone left, so that he would not have to see public desecration of Shabbat. Over time, Hacham Sion’s patience proved worthwhile as Shabbat observance improved dramatically. Courageous Leadership Hacham Sion understood that his mission’s success depended upon his rabbinic autonomy; taking orders from laymen would undermine his authority and thus sabotage his efforts to strengthen religious observance. He asserted this autonomy soon upon his arrival in Panama, when the community leaders handed him a contract detailing precisely what he could or could not do in his role as rabbi. He immediately ripped the paper in half. “I came here against my will,” he explained, “to obey the instruction of the sages in Israel. Anytime you’d like to fire me, I will go. Do you think I came here to sign contracts, or to sanctify the Name of Gd?” The community leaders stood up and applauded the rabbi’s courageous and uncompromising leadership. Hacham Sion then proceeded to establish his own terms and conditions: Anyone who intermarried would not be accepted in the • community. Conversions would not be permitted. • The rabbi would exert exclusive, uncontested authority • over the shul and its policies. He also demanded that a mikveh be built, threatening that he would otherwise return to Israel. Within a week, a crude but satisfactory mikveh was built in a small room in the back of the synagogue. Later, Hacham Sion announced that he would perform weddings only if the bride first immersed in a mikveh . Within just a few years, a proper, respectable mikveh was constructed. As the community’s only mohel , Hacham Sion confronted the problem of the “Sunday morning berit .” He discovered that all beritot in Panama were held on Sunday morning, so that people could attend without missing work. Of course, this practice ran in direct opposition to the strict obligation to circumcise an infant on his eighth day. Hacham Sion unhesitatingly announced that he would only perform beritot at the proper time – on the eighth day, in accordance with halacha . teVet 5769 JanuaRy 2009 29