ג' בחשוון
14.10.2026
The anniversary of the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (September 23, 1920 – October 7, 2013) a Sephardi-Orthodox decisor and author, served as the Sephardic Chief Rabbi ("Ha-Rishon LeZion") between 1973-1983, was the spiritual leader and president of the Council of Torah Sages of the Shas party since its inception, and one of the most important Halachic decisors in recent generations.
He is considered by many to be one of the foremost rabbis in the Jewish world, and has been awarded the titles “Posek HaDor” ("Decisor of the present generation"), “Gadol HaDor” ("greatest (one of) the generation"), “Maor Yisrael” ("The Light of Israel"), and “Maran.”
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's life's work was the aspiration to create a uniform Torah code for all groups in Israel, subject to the traditional rulings of Rabbi Yosef Karo, the author of the "Shulchan Aruch," thereby reducing the various customs and adopting the halachic rule of "the power of Dahitira is preferable" – that is, it is better to ease a ruling than make it severe.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef died on the 3rd of Heshvan 5774, at the age of 93, and was buried next to his wife in the Sanhedria cemetery in Jerusalem.
