Community Magazine May 2013

towering level of scholarship and the modest stature of his audience. “The special ability my brother had was in being able to bring down and explain the deepest thoughts in Torah and Halachah so that the same shiur was both understood and enjoyable for the Torah scholar and the one who was not learned. Usually, the more knowledgeable a person is, the more difficult it is for him to explain things in simple terms so that anyone can understand. The opposite was true of my brother. He was extremely knowledgeable with an extremely unusual ability to explain the most difficult material.” One of the keys to the hacham’s pedagogical prowess, as his brother described, was his careful and intensive preparation for his shiurim . He prepared extensively, organizing the material in a logical, orderly fashion, and writing notes for himself. During the lecture, though, he taught without looking at his notes, ensuring to direct his full attention to his audience. Hacham Yaakov’s unparalleled expertise as a lecturer was confirmed anew each year, Hacham David notes. “Every year on the anniversary of my mother’s passing, I arrange a day of learning and a meal. I have many rabbis giving shiurim , and I always ask, besides my father, who delivered the best shiur . Hacham Yaakov receives 100 percent of the vote.” “The Oxygen That He Breathed” As an example of his brother’s tireless commitment to teaching, Hacham David described how his brother would spend Yom Haasmaut, Israeli Independence Day, which is celebrated in Israel as a vacation day. In order to ensure that the free time was used constructively, Hacham Yaakov spent the entire day delivering shiurim in Ashdod and in other places, packing into his schedule as many classes as could be fit into a single day. Hacham David said this is how the hacham spent Yom Haatsmaut each year for the last 20 years. Even more remarkable was Hacham Yaakov’s courageous and unflinching struggle to maintain his teaching schedule during his months of painful and debilitating illness. “When Hacham Yaakov was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,” Hacham David recalled, “the doctor gave a prognosis. She said most likely he will have just three months to live. My brother asked to go home, and closed himself in his room for a few hours. Then he told his son to take him back to the hospital. HachamYaakov said to the doctor that he doesn’t believe in human prognoses, and that he wants the doctor to give him every treatment possible for this disease, no matter how painful and uncomfortable it might be. With that done, my brother continued to put his energies into what he loved to do best, and did better than anyone else, and that was the job of delivering classes. Hacham Yaakov continued to pray netz and continued to deliver 7-9 shiurim a day until the last week of his life, when he was just too weak.” During Hol Ha’mo’ed Pesah, just two weeks before Hacham Yaakov’s passing, Hacham David went to his house to visit him, and his wife informed him that Hacham Yaakov was delivering a shiur . Hacham David went to hear the shiur , and when Hacham Yaakov saw him, he asked him to come to the front to continue the lecture, as he was feeling too weak. Until that point, however, he mustered every last ounce of strength and energy to continue his holy mission of disseminating Torah wisdom. “Even though he was weak,” Hacham David said, “my brother told us that giving shiurim gave him strength. It was the oxygen that he breathed.” After his diagnosis, the name “Hai” (“life”) was added to his name, and thousands of Jews around the world were praying for Yaakov Hai ben Margalit. On Motza’e Shabbat, 20 Adar (March 2), Hacham Ovadia announced during his weekly shiur that his son’s health has deteriorated, and issued an impassioned plea to pray on his behalf. “To my great distress, my son, Rabbi Yaakov, Partial view of the tens of thousands of people mourning the petirah of Hacham Yaakov Yosef, zt"l , at his levayah in Jerusalem on Friday, April 12, 2013. (Yonatan Sindel) iyaR - SiVan 5773 may 2013 27