Pillar of Sephardic Jewry: Rav Yehuda Tzadka ZT”L
5670-5752
(12 Cheshvan)
By
D. Sofer
“Yes,” the rav replied.
“Do you eat well?”
“Yes,” the rav nodded, wondering at what Reb Yehuda could possibly be
driving at.
“What do you take for your headaches?” Reb Yehuda continued.
“Why is the rosh yeshiva so worried about me?” the rav interjected.
“Am I so pale?”
“No,” Reb Yehuda replied. “But I expected you to suffer from
insomnia, a loss of appetite and splitting headaches. “That’s how I would feel
if a secular school was about to open in my neighborhood.”
That was Reb Yehuda Tzadka. He was a pillar of Torah Jewry-and Sephardi Jewry in
particular-and would stop at nothing to protect the honor of the Torah.
A
SUDDEN WEAKNESS
Rav Yehuda Tzadka was born in Yerushalayim on 3 Shevat, 5670, a few weeks after the
petira of the Ben Ish Chai. Reb Yehuda’s father was the tzaddik Rav Shaul Tzadka, the
great grandson of Rav Tzadka Chutzin, author of Tzedaka U’misphat. His mother,
Simcha, was the Ben Ish Chai’s niece.
The Tzadka family lived in a small dwelling in the Beis Yisroel neighborhood of
Yerushalayim. When Yehuda was 5, he began to study in a talmud Torah near his home.
Yehuda was a cheerful, robust child. However, not long after the beginning of the
school year, his mother noticed that something was amiss.
“Why is he so weak? Why does he sleep later than usual?” she wondered.
Rebbetzin Simcha decided to discuss the problem with Yehuda’s teacher. But
when she entered Yehuda’s classroom, she was stunned when she saw the teacher-and his
bare head. Understanding the cause of her son’s sudden weakness, she immediately took
him out of the school.
That same day, she went to the Bnei Tzion Talmud Torah in the Bucharian quarter,
and asked its administration to admit Yehuda. The school secretary, however, said that he
simply could not accept a new student once the school year had begun.
Determined not to send Yehuda back to his former talmud Torah, Rebbetzin Simcha
hired a private tutor to teach him. In order to subsidize these lessons, she took a job as
a housekeeper, working long hours. At the end of the year, she registered him in Bnei
Tzion.
In time, Yehuda became Bnei Tzion’s top student. The time he spent in Bnei
Tzion had a decisive influence on his development, and he would often speak about the
outstanding melamdim who taught in that institution.
PORAT
YOSEF YESHIVA
In 5698, after completing talmud Torah, 12-year-old Yehuda Tzadka enrolled in the
Porat Yosef Yeshiva in the Old City.
Porat Yosef was founded more than 80 years ago to preserve Sephardi Jewry by
producing outstanding Sephardic Torah scholars who would perpetuate Torah and Torah study.
Reb Yosef Avraham Shalom, a philanthropist from Calcutta, played a major role in
the founding of the yeshiva. Reb Avraham Shalom had originally wanted to found a hospital
in Eretz Yisroel. When he wrote the Ben Ish Chai about his plans, he received the
following response: “Found a yeshiva, not a hospital. True, it is important to build
a hospital in Yerushalayim. However, many people will be eager to grab that mitzva, while
very few appreciate the value of Torah study.”
Reb Avraham Shalom heeded the Ben Ish Chai’s advice, and contributed a vast
sum of money for the founding of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva.
A
DEEP RELATIONSHIP
In Porat Yosef, the young and brilliant Yehuda Tzadka became very close with its
great leaders, Rav Yaakov Addes and Rav Ezra Attia. Reb Yehuda’s relationship with
Rav Attia was particularly deep.
Reb Yehuda quickly became Porat Yosef’s top student. During the day he would
study in the yeshiva, and at night he’d continue learning in the Beer Sheva shul in
Beis Yisroel. On Friday nights, he would study in the Shoshanim Le’David shul, in the
company of such renowned Sephardic sages as Rav Yaakov Chaim Sofer, better known as the
Kaf Hachayim, and Rav Yehoshua Sharhabani.
Despite Reb Yehuda’s brilliance, he regarded himself as nothing more than a
servant of those who serve Hashem. Calling himself an “iskupa hanidresset,”
“a threshold trampled by Torah scholars’ feet,” he effaced himself not only
before gedolei Yisroel, but also before all who studied Torah.
His self-effacement was so far reaching that he once asked a young Torah scholar
from Bnei Brak who had approached him for a blessing, “Why must an avreich from Bnei
Brak come all the way to Yerushalayim to receive my blessing when there are thousands of
excellent Torah students in your city?”
At last, out of pity for the young man who had traveled so far, he said,
“Yours is a mouth which studies Torah. Recite the blessing yourself, and I’ ll
respond with an Amen.”
HIS
MARRIAGE
In 5644 Reb Yehuda married Fahima, the daughter of Rav Selim Tzalach Batat of
Baghdad, and together they built a genuine Torah home. Fahima was known for her modesty,
alacrity and kindness. Her greatest aspiration was to enable her husband to study Torah
and to raise G-d-fearing children.
The two were blessed with seven children, five boys and two girls, all of whom
followed in their parents’ footsteps.
Fahima passed away when she was just 57. At her levaya, Reb Yehuda spoke about her
remarkable traits, saying that all of the Torah he studied was to her credit.
Later, Reb Yehuda married Tamar Asuderi, who served him faithfully until his final
day.
SPREADING
TORAH
After his marriage to Fahima, Reb Yehuda continued to study in Porat Yosef,
regarding Torah study as his life’s goal. In 5697, when Chacham Eliyahu Lopes, one of
the most venerable and respected ramim in Porat Yosef, felt too weak to continue teaching,
Rav Ezra Attia declared, “From now on Chacham Yehuda will teach Rav Eliyahu’s
students.”
The other members of the yeshiva’s teaching staff were surprised by Rav
Attia’s suggestion. Rav Lopes was an elderly sage, while Reb Yehuda was a young man.
However, Rav Attia averred, “True Rav Yehuda is young, but he possesses vast
knowledge.”
Among Reb Yehuda’s first students were Rav Abba Shaul, Rav Ovadia Yosef, Rav
Yehuda Mu’alem and Rav Ezra Addes.
In time, Reb Yehuda’s influence on the yeshiva grew, and he was asked to
become its menahel ruchani. In that capacity, his sole concern was the welfare of his
students who, in turn, loved and esteemed him.
Although introverted and quiet by nature, Reb Yehuda was transformed into a
different person when it came to Torah study. He would often pace the yeshiva’s study
hall, demanding of his students, “Louder, louder,” and wasn’t at ease until
the entire beis medrash buzzed with the sound of Torah.
In 5730, when Rav Ezra Attia passed away, all of the helmsmen of the yeshiva agreed
that only one man could replace him: Rav Yehuda Tzadka, with whom he had been so close.
But one person disagreed-Reb Yehuda. Throughout the remainder of his life, he
refused to reconcile himself to the fact that he had been appointed rosh yeshiva. “I
am not the rosh yeshiva,” he would often insist. “Since the passing of Rav
Attia, Porat Yosef has no rosh yeshiva. He left us a sacred trust-the yeshiva; but it is
only a trust. I pray that I merit to preserve that trust, without changing its essence or
format.”
He so loathed being called the rosh yeshiva that he would remove the logo off the
yeshiva’s official stationery when writing letters, so that people would not receive
the “false” impression that he was its head. Once, he discovered that a notice
about a hesped that listed the speakers had referred to him as rosh hayeshiva, and he
reprimanded those who had posted it.
However, his attachment to the yeshiva and deep bond with his students was
unsurpassed, and he and the yeshiva were like one entity.
Writing in V’zos Le’Yehuda, on the life and the times of Rav Yehuda
Tzadka, Rav Aharon Sorasky relates that when Petach Tikva’s chief rabbi, Rav Reuven
Katz, founded a regional beis din, he asked Reb Yehuda to assume the prestigious and
well-paying position of its Sephardic dayan. However, Rav Tzadka refused that offer,
regarding teaching in Porat Yosef as his life goal.
BROADENING
AND
EXPANDING
In the yeshiva’s early years, its students would complete their studies in the
late afternoon so that they could return to their homes in the new city before nightfall.
Concerned by how the students might occupy themselves at night, Rav Tzadka founded an
evening yeshiva for them in the Bucharian quarter.
Reb Yehuda studied in that yeshiva, along with Rav Yaakov Cohen, Rav Yehuda
Mu’alem and Rav Na’im Eliyahu, and slowly but surely his students began to join
him there. In time, the yeshiva grew and became known as Yeshivat Habachurim. This yeshiva
was conducted in a very formal manner. All the bachurim studied the same tractate, on
which they were tested at the end of the zman, and awards were distributed to the
outstanding students. Yeshivat Habachurim later became a supplementary department of Porat
Yosef’s yeshiva gedola. Eventually, the program was incorporated into the yeshiva
itself, in the form of night seder.
UNDER
FIRE
During the Jordanian siege of the Old City, Porat Yosef’s students continued
to study with valor. But in the end, the Jordanians gained the upper hand and captured the
Old City. Among those taken captive by the Jordanians was the rosh yeshiva’s son, Rav
Yosef Attia.
Determined not to close the yeshiva, Reb Yehuda established study sessions in
synagogues in Geula, Katamon and the Bucharian quarter in the new city. Soon a plot of
land was acquired, and plans to construct a new building in the Geula section were
launched. Reb Yehuda traveled abroad to raise funds for the building, despite the fact
that leaving Eretz Yisroel was very difficult for him.
Once, while on a fundraising trip to London, he learned that certain longstanding
donors had begun to desecrate Shabbos. He immediately sent messengers to inform them that
he would not accept their contributions. Although the yeshiva’s trustees pleaded with
Reb Yehuda to reverse his decision, they were forced to yield to his firm resolve.
That week, all of those donors whose donations Reb Yehuda had declined arrived at
his lodgings and begged him to reconsider. In the end, he agreed to accept their
donations-on one condition: that they promise to repent and observe Shabbos from then on.
Eventually, the yeshiva had enough money to built a new facility. At last, the
joyous day arrived: 26 Kislev 5715, the day on which the cornerstone of the new building
would be laid. Peering at the empty plot of land, Reb Yehuda excitedly asked his nephew,
Rav Na’im Eliyahu, “Do you hear the heartbeats of our fellow Jews?”
“I hear the beats of hoes and hammers,” Reb Na’im replied.
“No, Na’im,’ he quietly said. “These are the beats of the pure
hearts of Am Yisroel.”’
To what was Reb Yehuda referring? Rav Aharon Sorasky relates in V’zos L’
Yehuda: “On the very morning of the ceremony, to which many rabbanim, among them Rav
Zalman Sorotzkin, Rav Eliezer Waldenberg, Rav Yitzchak Nissim and Rav Yitzchak Herzog, had
been invited, the laborers who were supposed to prepare the ground for the cornerstone
laying did not arrive. Every moment was crucial and the yeshiva’s administration was
very upset.
“Suddenly, scores of Iranian Jews were seen marching toward the plot of land,
hoes and hammers in their hands. They asked Rav Na’im where the ground had to be
leveled. Assuming that they were laborers who had been hired instead of those who
hadn’t appeared, he showed them the place.
“However, it soon became clear that those ‘laborers’ were none other
than members of Reb Yehuda’s synagogue who, having heard about the ceremony, had come
to the site in order to actively participate in the preparation of the land on which the
yeshiva would be built.”
SOLDIER
IN
THE
KING’S ARMY
Although quiet and unassuming, Reb Yehuda was a valiant soldier in the legion of
the King of kings and, when necessary, would man the front lines in the battles to prevent
the spiritual decimation of Sephardic Jewry. At times, he would lead these battles, and at
other times he would station himself at Peylim’s central office like a young soldier
reporting for duty.
His entire life was one long saga of strenuous efforts to convince parents to give
their children a proper Torah upbringing and not to abandon them to secular influences.
“Al techetu bayeled,” “Do not sin with the child,” he would roar at
rallies all over the country, echoing the words uttered by Reuven thousands of years
earlier as he attempted to prevent his brothers from killing Yosef. These words have
become an aphorism that means: “Don’t make fatal educational mistakes at the
expense of your children.”
The days on which school registration was conducted were like Yom Hadin for him,
and he would travel all over the country, pleading with parents, “Al techetu bayeled.
Register your children in Torah schools.”
A student who accompanied him on many of these registration campaigns recalls the
following story: “One evening, as we were riding to a distant settlement, one of the
activists turned on some music. Rav Yehuda was taken aback. ‘How can you listen to
music when the Shechina is in exile and thousands of young people are being turned away
from Torah?’”
On another occasion, Reb Yehuda learned that a child from the French Hill
neighborhood was studying in a Conservative framework. Reb Yehuda personally tried to
transfer the child to an appropriate school, but the principal adamantly refused. Reb
Yehuda restated his request in writing, but to no avail. Early one morning, Reb Yehuda
reported at the child’s home. Taking him by the hand, he brought him to the Torah
school. Entering the sixth grade, Rav Yehuda told the teacher, ‘This is my son. If
there are any problems, call me.’”
According to a veteran Peylim activist, there was not a single chareidi battle that
Reb Yehuda did not join.
“One time Peylim sponsored a rally on behalf of Iranian immigrants in
spiritual distress,” the activist recalled. “At the rally, the gedolei hador and
the country’s greatest roshei yeshiva, among them Rav Yehuda Tzadka, delivered
rousing speeches. Afterward, the rally’s organizers announced that forms for
prospective volunteers were being distributed at a stand in the back of the auditorium.
Joining the bachurim, Rav Tzadka approached the stand and filled out a form, too. A copy
of that form is still in Peylim’s possession.”
During that period, the government would sponsor social activities that brought
Arab and Israeli youngsters together. Late one Friday afternoon, Reb Tzadka learned that
such an encounter was to take place the very next day-Shabbos-in a school in Bayit Vegan.
Shortly before Shabbos, Reb Yehuda asked a group of avreichim to drive through the
neighborhood and announce that a demonstration protesting the get-together would be held
that very afternoon. Then he began to coordinate the rally. Despite the late hour, he
called dozens of institutions in Bayit Vegan and pleaded, “Go out and
demonstrate.” Many activists doubted that a rally could be organized on such short
notice, but somehow, the demonstration became a reality.
Reb Yehuda was not concerned with kavod, but rather with achieving his goals, and
he would not hesitate to delegate a leadership role to anyone capable of acting during a
crisis.
During a fierce struggle against the State’s absorption policies, a mammoth
rally was scheduled to be held in Yerushalayim. A day before the rally, a young Peylim
activist approached Reb Yehuda and mentioned a point that he thought the rosh yeshiva
should raise in his speech.
Reb Yehuda was so impressed by the young man’s presentation that he said,
“You’ll speak at the rally instead of me.” The young man was taken aback by
the strange suggestion that he speak at a rally attended by the nation’s greatest
Torah leaders, but Reb Yehuda insisted.
“The purpose of this rally is to sanctify Hashem’s Name,” he said.
“Since you understand the problems so well, you must speak.”
In time, Reb Yehuda became the backbone of Sephardic Jewry in Eretz Yisroel. In
addition to heading Porat Yosef Yeshiva, he, along with other gedolim, founded a network
of talmud Torahs that reinstated the golden era of Sephardic Jewry. He also spread Torah
in immigrant camps and waged a fiery battle against autopsies and the proposed Sheirut
Leumi law. Thanks to his efforts, Jews from Turkey, Iran, Persia, Georgia, Morocco, Syria
and Yemen were saved from spiritual decimation.
HIS
LOVE OF TORAH
Love of Torah literally burned within Reb Yehuda like raging flames. Even during
his final years when he was very ill, he did not forego delivering shiurim in the yeshiva.
During these shiurim, the ailing and pain-wracked Reb Yehuda would be totally rejuvenated.
A moment after the shiur ended, the pain would return.
When his situation was so grave that he could not breathe without the aid of an
oxygen tank, he still did not forego the “spiritual” oxygen provided by his
shiurim. At such times, his oxygen tank would be brought into his shiur room and attached
to him as he lectured. In this manner, he would be revived both physically and
spiritually.
TRANSITORY
LODGINGS
Reb Yehuda knew that this world is only a bridge to the World of Come, and his
simple household furnishings and lifestyle were strong indications of this.
At one point, he suffered from severe back pains. Nonetheless, he refused to let
his family purchase a therapeutic armchair that would have eased his pain.
“A person must feel that this world is only a passageway to a different
one,” he said. “Sofas and armchairs do not convey that message,” he said.
FINAL
DAYS
During the final decade of his life, Reb Yehuda remained young at heart and had
boundless spiritual energy. He closed the introduction to his sefer Kol Yehuda, which was
first published in 5744, with the prayer: “Please, Hashem, give me the strength and
the health to do Your Will and to continue my life mission with success. May I be able to
continue to dwell in the House of Hashem all the days of my life.”
During the last Elul of his life, he would often visit the yeshiva urging his
students to increase their Torah study and to grow in their yiras Shamayim and avodas
Hashem.
On Rosh Hashana 5752, he prayed in the Shaul Tzadka shul, surrounded by his sons,
grandchildren and students. He delivered a powerful drasha prior to the shofar blowing,
inspiring everyone in attendance. But on motzaei Rosh Hashana, he was seized by sharp
chest pains. He was rushed to the Bikur Cholim Hospital, and from there he was transferred
to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.
News of his condition spread like wildfire, and students and admirers all over the
country assembled to pray for his recovery. A massive prayer rally was held at the Kosel.
Among those in attendance were the thousands of youngsters who were in Torah schools
thanks to his tireless efforts.
Early in the morning of 12 Cheshvan 5752, he returned his pure soul to its Maker.
His levaya was attended by thousands, led by Eretz Yisroel’s most prominent Sephardic
and Ashkenazic Torah sages.
He was buried in the Sanhedria cemetery in his family plot, leaving Sephardi
Jewry-and all of Torah Jewry-bereft of one of its greatest leaders.
Re-Printed with permission from Yated Ne'eman. All rights reserved.