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A BIT OF HISTORY / דברי הימים
One of the giants in Torah and community leadership in the dawn of the 20th century was Hacham Yosef Yedid Halevy זצוק”ל. Hacham Yedid was born in Aleppo in 1867 to his father, Hacham Mordechai – a humble schoolteacher – who taught children the Alef Bet. Hacham Mordechai ע”ה knew all of Tanach and its Arabic translation by heart, and was a master of Dikduk and poetry as well. Although they lived in severe poverty, Hacham Mordechai was a great ba’al hessed and was very meticulous about his appearance and his speech.
As the young Yosef grew older, he joined his father as an assistant at the school to help with the burden of the Parnassah. However, Yosef yearned for more Torah study. Realizing that his father could not afford him a high-level Torah education, Yosef would secretly go to the synagogue in the evenings after finishing his work at the school and pray tearfully at the open Aron Kodesh to be afforded an opportunity to study more Torah. On one of those instances, he was noticed by Hacham Shaul Kassin זצ”ל (1864-1917). Hacham Kassin realized how much potential this boy had and reassured him that he would find benefactors to support his Torah study.
Hacham Yosef became a student of the great sage Hacham Avraham Ades זצ”ל and studied alongside towering Torah scholars. Soon enough he became known as a great Hacham and Dayan. When the time came, Hacham Yosef married Leah, a young orphaned girl, who was under the care of her uncle Hacham Aharaon Zayyat-Sharabati ע”ה. She was known as a very righteous and modest woman.
In 1890 they settled in Safed, where – steeped in the Keddusha of Eretz Yisrael – Hacham Yosef studied and taught Torah day and night. He now became well-known in Eretz Yisrael for his great knowledge and scholarship and was appointed as a Dayan in Safed. The Gedolim of the generation, such as Hacham Shelomo Alfandari זצ”ל (the “Saba Kadisha”) and the famed commentator on the Yerushalmi, the Ridbaz (Rav Yaakov David Vilobsky זצ”ל) had an unusual admiration for Hacham Yosef.
Although the living conditions in that era were extremely harsh, that did not disturb Hacham Yosef’s diligent Torah study. Hacham Ezra Attia זצ”ל (Rosh Yeshiva of Porat Yosef) would relate, that once the Ridbaz and Hacham Yosef Yedid were studying in the Bet Midrash very late at night until their candle burned out. Instead of stopping their learning, the Ridbaz would quote entire portions of Gemara by heart while Hacham Yosef would respond with the relevant discussions in the early and late Poskim – ויהי אור!
Unfortunately, Hacham Yosef and his wife endured a lot of grief. They had four children who died at a young age and were now left childless. Hacham Yosef’s father, Hacham Mordechai, received a blessing from a great North African sage who promised Hacham Yosef a child and requested that he be named after him: Shelomo. Indeed, after thirteen years of marriage, the rabbi and his wife were blessed with a healthy son which they named Shelomo. When Shelomo grew up, he devoted himself tirelessly to the publication of his father’s thousands of pages of manuscripts.
In 1911 at the behest of his uncle Hacham Yom Tov Yedid, Hacham Yosef settled in Yerushalayim and was accepted by the Bukhari community as the Rav and Dayan. They spared no expense in affording Hacham Yosef the most extensive collections of Sefarim. Hacham Yosef also headed the Bet Din of Aram Soba in Yerushalayim – and under him sat Hacham Avraham Ades זצ“ל and Hacham Shlomo Laniado זצ“ל. It is there that he published his well-known scholarly works: Torat Hacham, Teshuvot Yeme Yosef, Vayehi Yosef on the laws of Gittin and more.
As a leader of the Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael during the very turbulent beginning of the 20th century, Hacham Yosef was very dedicated to Am Yisrael’s spiritual state. He fought relentlessly against any breaches in Torah observance. He had a very sharp pen and effectively utilized his writing abilities and authority to help establish faithful Torah Jewry in Eretz Yisrael alongside HaGaon Rav Yosef Haim Zonnenfeld זצ”ל and Hacham Hayim Shaul Dwek זצ”ל.
Hacham Yosef passed away in 1930 at the young age of 63 and was escorted by thousands to his final resting place on Har HaZetim. In a rare display of goodwill on behalf of the British Mandate (at the appeal Hacham Yedid’s student Hacham Eliyahu Shamah זצ”ל) the procession marched through Rehov Yaffo, Yerushalayim’s main street, as a bow of respect to the revered sage.
Among his students are Hacham Yaakov Ades זצ“ל, Hacham Yaakov Kassin זצ“ל who later lead the Syrian community in New York, and the Hachamim Simha and Yehuda Haimoff זצ“ל. (Adapted from “He’ir Hamizrah” by Gadi Glykeroff)