Community Magazine January 2012

As a young man, Raphael Elnadav sang at a reception before the Gerrer Rebbe, the Imrei Emet, (Rabbi Mordechai Avraham Alter, z.s.l. 1866-1948). Pleased with his performance, the Rebbe blessed the young prodigy and encouraged him to continue to develop his wonderful talent. A few years later, Raphael was asked to help the Gerrer community. Yaakov Talmud, a prominent hassid , had composed a number of melodies, but did not live nearby. The Rebbe sought someone classically trained who could read the music notes and teach the songs to his hassidim in preparation for the Rebbe’s tish . (The Rebbe would hold tish – literally, “table” – each Shabbat and on Yamim Tovim , where the participants would hear divrei Torah and sing.) Raphael Elnadav was asked to help teach these melodies, which he did, adding some of his own compositions to the hassidim ’s repertoire. “They called me ‘Noodif, Noodif!’” he chuckled years later, recalling these events. Before his wedding, Rabbi Elnadav visited the Gerrer Rebbe. By this time, the Imrei Emet had passed away, and so the young groom sought an audience with the Rebbe’s successor, the Beit Yisrael (Rabbi Yisrael Alter, z.s.l. 1894-1977). He handed the Rebbe an invitation to the wedding, and took his leave. As he exited the room, the Rebbe called him back. “This you gave me. This is mine,” said the Rebbe, indicating the invitation. “This is not!” he added, referring to the blank envelope which had enclosed the invitation. These were the people of the Torah world in that time… studying violin, voice development and musical theory. Professor Moshe Cordova trained him in the various makamot of Oriental music, and Raphael was soon recognized as a vastly talented singer with a diverse repertoire of Sephardic liturgical melodies, as well as Arabic, Turkish and Yemenite songs. Simultaneously, he continued his Torah learning in Jerusalem’s Yeshivat Shaare Zion under Chief Rabbi Ben-Zion Uziel. He earned semicha (rabbinical ordination) from Rabbi Eliezer Waldenberg z.s.l. (1915-2006), the renowned halachic sage and author of the voluminous Tzitz Eliezer , and learned mila , shehita and safrut . He spent his evenings learning in the Gerrer bet medrash near his home. These diverse skills and qualifications prepared him for a future where he would draw on his unique talents and abilities to serve Hashem and the Jewish people. A Servant of Am Yisrael But all was not calm and peaceful in the land he loved. The land of Israel was governed by the British Mandate which often took a hostile posture towards Jews. Deeply committed to the cause of Jewish sovereignty, the young Rabbi Raphael joined the Irgun, an underground defense force, serving as chaplain, even teaching hazanut to groups of young soldiers. At one point, he was arrested and imprisoned for some two-and-a-half months for his anti-British activities. His brother Yosef z.l. was killed in the struggle for Jewish independence, a personal loss which deeply affected Raphael. Life took on a more regular routine once the State was established in 1948. In 1950, Rabbi Elnadav married Bertha (Batia) Hassoun, and the couple settled in Tel Aviv, where he was appointed chief hazan in Congregation Ohel Moed, the main Sephardic synagogue of Tel Aviv. Their eldest son, Yosef, was born soon after. By then, Rabbi Elnadav had earned widespread acclaim in the world of hazanut as a talented innovator, composer and expert in Sephardic liturgy, and his fame had spread to Jewish communities throughout the world. He was only 34, but tremendously accomplished – a shohet (ritual slaughterer), mohel , hazan and rabbi – when the life-altering job offer came. An emissary from Cuba’s Sephardic community arrived in Israel, having been sent for the sole purpose of offering Rabbi Elnadav the leadership of the community. After months of negotiation and deliberation, the Elnadavs agreed. Mrs. Elnadav, and her parents, the Hassouns, were heartbroken at the prospect of separation, and so, just before Rosh Hashanah of 1955, Rabbi Elnadav, his wife, child and parents-in-law arrived in Havana. Rabbi Elnadav quickly threw himself into the service of the Cuban community. He functioned for them at every level – leading the prayers, performing marriages and funerals, presiding over gittin (divorces), and answering halachic queries. Often, there was more than one berit mila to perform in a day, and the community would pay for him to travel by plane from one end of the island to the other so the mitzva could be performed at the proper time. He supervised kashrut in Cuba, overseeing the shehita process twice a week. However, despite the critical role he served as spiritual leader and functionary of the Cuban community, Rabbi Elnadav was forced to cut his time in the island short. With the rise of Communism, Rabbi Elnadav sensed the impending Castro takeover of Cuba, and realized he had to get his family, now with two young children, out of Cuba. Fortunately, Hashem had already paved the way for his exit. The Gerrer Connection In-laws In House Rabbi Elnadav lived with his parents-in-law for most of his married life. Mrs. Elnadav was an only child, and her parents were heartbroken at the prospect of their only daughter moving to Cuba. Rabbi Elnadav undertook to move them with his own family, and took care of them for the rest of their lives. He treated them with respect and devotion, never raising his voice or losing his temper with either of them. (It helped that they, too, were exceptional people!) During Mrs. Hassoun’s illness, the rabbi commented to one of his daughters-in-law, “I feel like she is my mother! I lived with her more years than I lived with my own mother!” Walking down the aisle at a wedding he was officiating in Cuba, circa 1959. 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