Community Magazine January 2012

A True Yerushalmi Born into the Jerusalem of some 90 years ago, Rabbi Elnadav grew up in a world vastly different from 21 st -century New York, and throughout his life he carried a certain nostalgia for his simple, and pure Yerushalmi upbringing. To step into his home was like stepping back in time – the very atmosphere was saturated with Torah, halacha and tzeniut . He was always a very private person, even as he served the public, and after his retirement he devoted himself to personal pursuits and to his family. He carried with him the images of the great people he had known, never losing sight of the Yerushalayim of his youth. One grandson related that he once asked Rabbi Raphael a question regarding the Maharal and the plausibility of his renowned golem . Rabbi Elnadav replied, “If you knew the gedolim I knew, if you saw what I saw, you wouldn’t ask if such a thing was possible!” Rabbi Elnadav was born to a prominent Yemenite rabbinical family that had immigrated to Jerusalem around the turn of the 20 th century. His father, Rabbi Meyer z.s.l. , exerted a profound influence on young Raphael, who expressed his reverence for him in a privately published collection of original Torah insights. Rabbi Elnadav would say, “ Abba sheli haya kimo mal’ach – My father was like an angel!” As a young man, Rabbi Raphael learned in the prestigious Yeshivat Porat Yosef in Jerusalem’s Old City, until Arab violence forced the yeshiva to relocate to Western Jerusalem. “We were forced into galut [exile],” Rabbi Elnadav said many years later. “We found refuge in synagogues in Western Jerusalem and studied there.” Blessed with a magnificent singing voice, the young Raphael studied hazanut under the renowned Sepharadi hazan Yaakov Levi. He received further musical training at Jerusalem’s Conservatory, Rabbi Raphael Yair ELNADAV  THE HAZAN He was known as a master hazan and an exceptional teacher. He was dubbed “The Voice of His Generation,” and described as the foremost Sephardic cantor. But notwithstanding his well-earned notoriety in hazanut, the true extent of Rabbi Raphael Yair Elnadav’s brilliant talents was far more rich and varied than most would ever know. 28 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE