Community Magazine May 2013

who spent his entire life in Torah, striving to learn and teach, has recently taken ill. My dear son, Rabbi Yaakov Hai, is in very serious condition.” A large prayer service was held at the Kotel that Monday, with thousands of people in attendance, including both Chief Rabbis of the State of Israel and numerous other prominent figures. “Changing Apartments” Hacham David described his brother’s life as one which was characterized by spiritual engagement, and limited material and physical indulgence. He drew satisfaction and found fulfillment not from the material benefits of this world, but rather from the beauty of Torah study and the joy of teaching. He recited his prayers slowly, patiently, and with intense concentration. Rather than rush through prayers to resume his mundane activities, he relished every moment he had to speak with his Creator. His Torah study, HachamDavid described, was “legendary.” Hacham David also noted the special relationshipHachamYaakov enjoyed with the Yosef family’s neighbor, the great sage Hacham Ben Sion Abba Shaul zt”l , with whom he would frequently speak in Torah matters. It was this focus on spirituality that empowered the hacham to confront his illness with courage and conviction, knowing that his pain and suffering was leading him to a world which he had no reason to fear. “About a year ago,” Hacham David recalled, “my brother told me that he was thankful to Bore Olam for giving him notice that he was going to be changing apartments.” He perceived his likely departure from this world as a transition from one “apartment” – from the materialism and vanity of this world – to the next “apartment,” the pure, pristine spirituality of the next world. And he valiantly continued preparing himself for that move until the final moments. Hacham Yaakov moved into his new “apartment” on Friday, 2 Iyar. Although the funeral was held just a short while before the onset of Shabbat, tens of thousands of Jews from across the spectrum of Israel’s observant population came to pay their respects and escort the deceased to his final resting place at Har Hamenuhot cemetery. Eulogies were delivered by the current and former Sephardic Chief Rabbis, Harav Shlomo Amar and Harav Eliyahu Bashi-Doron, as well as by Harav Yaakov Ades and Hacham Ben Tzion Mutzafi. Hacham Yaakov’s son, Hacham Ovadia, a Rosh Kollel in Bet Shemesh, noted how his father never took vacations and was constantly involved in the study and dissemination of Torah. The deceased’s father, Hagaon Hacham Ovadia Yosef, cited the famous verse in Tehillim, “ Mah ahavti Toratecha kol hayom hi sihati – “How I love Your Torah; it is what I speak of all day,” and applied it to his beloved son. “All his days he was busy with Torah, he was disseminating Torah, from one place to another.” He has now moved on to disseminate Torah in his new “apartment,” leaving us behind to mourn his passing and continue his legacy of spiritual devotion. President Shimon Peres offers condolences to Hacham Ovadia Yosef. Hacham Yaakov Yosef, zt”l Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu making a shiva visit to Hacham Ovadia Yosef. Observers say that Hacham Ovadia Yosef is extremely distraught over the passing of his son. However, despite his personal pain, he has continued to voice his distress over the threats to the Torah world, and speaks about how his soul finds no peace because of the proposed recruitment of Israeli yeshivah to the IDF. When Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited Hacham Ovadia Yosef’s home in the Har Nof neighborhood seeking to comfort him over the passing of his son, Hacham Ovadia Yosef told the Prime Minister, “Although I am now a mourner, a father who has buried his son, especially such a Torah giant and teacher like my son was, and the pain is terrible, I am terribly distraught over the drafting of yeshivah students.”  Rabbi David Amon Dean 78 Rechov Fattal • Ramat Shlomo, Jerusalem Is 28 Community magazine