On Tuesday evening, October 16, the community gathered at The Young Israel of Briarwood for an uplifting commemoration of the yahrzeit of Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l. The first speaker, Rabbi Simantov Yanetz, the downstairs Rav of Young Israel of Briarwood, greeted everyone and shared a short fascinating biography of Rav Ovadia Yosef. He was born in Iraq in 1920. Rabbi Simantov traced Rav Ovadia’s growth in Torah. He was a brilliant student from the age of eight. In 1947, the Chief Rabbi Told Rav Ovadia to go to Egypt as the community there needed his guidance. He was newly married when he and his wife moved to Egypt. After three years he came back to Israel and then he became a dayan. From 1958-1965, he was Dayan in Yerushalayim. In 1965, he became Dayan Beit Hadin Hagadol. In 1968, he became Chief Rabbi of Tel Ai and in 1973, he became the Chief Rabbi of Israel. Due to the Yom Kippur War, there were 900 agunos and Rav Ovadia was asked to deal with this situation. He opened a special beis din to find a solution for this situation. During the Yom Kippur War Rav Ovadia went in the middle of the war to give chizuk to the Israeli soldiers. When warned it was dangerous as he was risking his life, he replied so are the Israeli soldiers. In 1983, he left being the Chief Rabbi to work on his mission to return the crown to the Sephardic community. He traveled all over the world and worked to open yeshivos and mikvaos. Today more and more are opening.
He was niftar on gimmel Chesvan in 2013. His funeral was the largest funeral in the history of the state of Israel. Rabbi Simantov pointed out, “The whole world knew what he accomplished.” 800,000 people attended his funeral.
Next, Rabbi David Shelby, former Shamos of Hacham Ovadia Yosef, shared some of the many incredible stories about Rav Ovadia. He had the privilege to spend so much time with him. “I witnessed many many miracles and brachos that came from the rabbi. Look how many brachos came to fruition because of him. Literally, thousands of people witnessed them.” He began by sharing a true story of a couple in the Queens community who had been childless for six years and who sponsored the yahrzeit commemoration of Rav Ovadia last year. Nine months later they were blessed with a child. Rabbi Shelby shared another story. A man once came to Rav Ovadia and shared he was in terrible financial trouble. Rav Ovadia told him to go to the kever of Dovid Hamelech. This man zoomed there and when he arrived he fervently cried and prayed to Hashem for help. A wealthy man from America was there at the same time and this man approached the man who was crying and praying so hard and asked him what is the matter? The other man just said its okay, Hashem will help me. The wealthy man persisted in asking what the problem was and eventually the other man confided about his financial situation. On the spot, this man wrote out a check for the amount he needed for his mortgage and other expenses. Rabbi Shelby imparted, “He was the giant amongst us. How lucky we were that he lived in our generation.”
He added, “We saw true greatness!” Rabbi Shelby spoke about a time when it was difficult to recite kiddush levanah because the sky was overcast. There were only a few days left one month for the blessing. The sky was completely overcast yet Rav Ovadia instructed his shamas to bring him his hat and jacket and miraculously the sky cleared, and the moon shone brightly that night.
Rav Ovadia was meticulous about saying 100 brachos a day. He grew spices on his porch with this in mind. One day there were no spices growing yet he instructed someone to go outside and please get some of the spices. When they went outside, the spices were there. Rabbi Shelby noted, “A tzadik says something and Hashem makes it happen. The more Torah you learn the more you get connected to the author of the Torah.” He stated that the depth and amount Rav Ovadia was engrossed in Torah was worth thousands of hours of learning Torah. He had 40,000 sefarim in his library. There were s’farim from the floor to the ceiling with no wall space. His s’farim had his notes in every book. Each sefer was like a whole museum in itself. “From age eight he never stopped learning until the age of 93 when he had only a few days left in this world.” Rav Ovadia said, “The whole purpose of me being in this world is to study Torah.” Rabbi Shelby said, “Torah for him was oxygen. He taught two halachos every day. He said them even after he had a stroke.” He learned in a car or a helicopter. He was always learning. In the 1980s in Elul he travelled all over the country with Rabbi Shalom Cohen. They got home at four am. Rabbi Cohen noted that he had no energy and Rav Ovadia who was ten years older said, “Wait we didn’t learn tonight.” They then learned from four am until five-thirty am.
President of Israel, Shimon Peres would visit with Rav Ovadia Yosef and learn with him.
Rabbi Shelby taught that even under difficult circumstances and poverty, Rav Ovadia never stopped learning. Rabbi Shelby shared a fascinating story about when Rav Ovadia was in Egypt. The Egyptian intelligence thought he was an Israeli spy. He stayed up late studying Torah until two am. He would hear them peeking into his window. One day the Egyptian intelligence came in with guns. They said, “Where is your ammunition and secret supplies? Why are you teaching in Hebrew and not in Arabic?” Rav Ovadia kept saying he had not ammunition or secret supplies, but they kept insisting he show it to them. Finally, he said, “Come see all my secret ammunition.” He showed them his s’farim. Then they realized he was a good person. They asked, ”So , why do you teach in Hebrew?”
He explained because G-d gave us the Torah in Hebrew. From then on, the Chief Police Inspector liked him. Later, when Rav Ovadia was ready to leave Egypt, the payment he had been promised was not coming so he accepted s’farim from the g’niza of Mitzrayim as his payment.
When he was ready to leave, he discovered there was a law that he could not take anything from Egypt. With the help of a friend, he was able to get around the rule and to take all the s’farim back with him to Israel. Some of his s’farim have an Arabic stamp.
Rav Ovadia had incredible dreams. One night the Chidah came to him a dream and thanked him for proving he did not have a contradiction in his s’farim. The Ben Ish Chai came to him in a dream. The
Ramah and the Ravash all came to him in a dream. Mashiach came to him in a dream. In this dream Rav Ovadia described that he walked onto a big stage to ask why aren’t you here? The answer was there are one million Jewish children in Eretz Yisrael who don’t know Shema.
Rav Ovadia teaches us many lessons Rabbi Shelby stated. We have to be who we are. Torah is so special we should learn and teach Torah. Care the way Rav Ovadia did. Teach the world to care and. the name of Hashem should be blessed and spread in the world and Rav Ovadia will bless us from shamayim.
The evening grew late, but everyone wanted to stay to hear words of wisdom and comfort from Rabbi Ilan Meirov, Founder of Chazaq. Rabbi Ilan spoke briefly and shared powerful ideas that resonate. Hashem was not happy until Avraham came along. What does this mean? There were Shem and Ever and Noach before him who were all righteous, so why does the Torah say this. He answered that people had to come to Shem and Ever and to Noach. They didn’t go out to the people while Avraham went out to inspire the people to believe in Hashem. Rabbi Ilan imparted,”Rav Ovadia Yosef was a tremendous gaon, a fearless posek, and not afraid of anything. His greatest milah was he went down to the people. He talked to them on their level to bring them back to Hashem. He travelled country to country and knocked on people’s doors teaching them the importance of sending their children to yeshiva.”
Rabbi Ilan shared how when he visited Rav Ovadia towards the end Rav Ovadia’s life, and Rav Ovadia took time to make him feel special and to compliment the sefer he was writing.
Sometimes a child will come home and show his father, “Look Aba, I made this project in school.” The father turns and says, “Nice” and returns to what he was doing. This is wrong. We must stop and pay attention and give heartfelt compliments. Rabbi Ilan said, “Become the best you can be. That is what we can learn from Maran Ovadia.”
He continued with a powerful d’var Torah connected to these ideas. The Torah states that Noach was righteous in his generation. This could mean in another generation he would be more righteous, or it could mean in his generation he was considered righteous but in another he would not be considered so righteous. How could there be a negative idea like this? We are always taught to give the benefit of the doubt and to be positive. What does this mean? Rav Pam answered this seemingly negative interpretation is the greatest thing. Hashem is telling us not to compare ourselves to someone else. Everyone is judged on his level and according to his own circumstances. People came from Russia and communism and had to overcome incredible obstacles. The message is that with your challenges you are judged. Hashem judges you based on your circumstances. We can become the best we can become.
He urged, “Give your children a push to become greater. Let children continue in yeshiva education in Israel. You never know what they can become. We can improve our way of life. See how we can inspire someone else.”
He concluded with a brachah that we should be together next year at this time in Yerushalyim with Mashiach and Rav Ovadia.
Everyone left totally uplifted and inspired by this beautiful event.
By Susie Garber
Yahrzeit Commemoration Of Rav Ovadia Yosef zt”l At The Young Israel Of Briarwood
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