Community Magazine June 2014

34 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE Community Welcomes Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Hacham Yitzhak Yosef The Sephardic community of Brooklyn and Deal was graced last month by the presence of Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Hacham Yitzhak Yosef, shelita , son of Maran HaGaon Hacham Ovadia Yosef, zt”l . After his arrival on Thursday evening, May 8th, the hacham honored our community by visiting numerous institutions in Brooklyn and Deal, sharing words of Torah and inspiration, offering his heartfelt blessings, and assuring us all that the cherished legacy of his esteemed father is alive and strong. The Making of a Chief Rabbi Hacham Yitzhak is the sixth child of Maran Rabbenu Ovadia Yosef, zt”l , and, like all his brothers and brothers-in-law, he has followed his father’s extraordinary example of piety and scholarship, and emerged as a very influential Torah figure among Israel’s Sephardic population. Born in 1952, he attended school at Talmud Torah Yavneh, and later, at age 12, he enrolled in the famed Yeshivat Porat Yosef. He also studied at Yeshivat HaNegev in Netivot, and in the Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem. In 1971, as a 19-year-old student at Yeshivat HaNegev, young Yitzhak Yosef collected halachic rulings from what was then five volumes of his father’s masterwork, Yabia Omer , and published them as a separate work under the title Yalkut Yosef . The book was eventually published with his father’s support and under his supervision. Several years later, in 1975, HachamYitzhak was appointed rabbi of the towns Nes Harim and Mata near Jerusalem, where he delivered classes on halachah several times a week and took care of religious affairs. As part of his responsibilities, he delivered lectures in the secular public schools to strengthen the students’ religious education. In 1980, he was ordained as a rabbi and dayan . Just several months before his father’s passing, on July 24, 2013, Hacham Yitzhak was elected to serve as the Rishon Le’tzion, or Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, a position he will hold for the next decade. The inauguration took place on August 14, 2013 at the official residence of the President of Israel. A Prolific Author Yalkut Yosef is a 24-volume masterpiece, a lucid, well-organized compendium of the halachot that every Jew must know in order to properly observe the mitzvot . It covers all areas of Jewish law, and strictly follows the halachic rulings of the rabbi’s father, Hacham Ovadia, zt”l . The work is widely regarded as an indispensable resource for every Sephardic home. But while Hacham Yitzhak is best known for Yalkut Yosef , the rabbi has also authored several other books. In his En Yitzhak , the hacham explains in great detail the proper methodology for learning and understanding Mishnah, Gemara, and Shulhan Aruch , and the system of determining the final, authoritative halachic ruling. Community Welcomes Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Hacham Yitzhak Yosef LEON SAKKAL Hacham Yitzhak Yosef at his coronation as RishonL’Tzion. Photo credit: Ron Habbaz