Ovadja Josef

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Ovadja Josef, 2013

Ovadja Josef ( Hebrew עובדיה יוסף; born on September 23, 1920 in Baghdad , then British Mandate Mesopotamia ; died October 7, 2013 in Jerusalem , Israel ) was an Israeli rabbi . He was the Sephardic Rabbi of Israel and the spiritual head of the Shas movement.

Life

Ovadja Josef was born as the son of a goldsmith under the name Abdullah Youssef in Baghdad and emigrated to Jerusalem with his parents at the age of four. At the age of 20 he received the semicha , the rabbinical ordination . Thanks to his unique memory and brilliant reasoning, he soon gained a reputation as an eminent legal scholar. He served as Deputy Chief Rabbi of Egypt and Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv (1968–1973) and Haifa .

As the successor to Rabbi Jitzchaq Nissim , he was Rischon le-Zion from 1973 to 1983 (רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן 'First in Zion' , the official name of the country's Sephardic chief rabbi). Until 1975 he continued to serve from his Tel Aviv official residence at the city's Sephardic Synagogue . His successor in Tel Aviv was Rabbi Chaim David ha-Levi .

He died in Jerusalem on October 7, 2013 after a long and serious illness. At least 500,000, maybe even 800,000 people gathered for his funeral, at least more than at the funeral of Yitzchak Rabin .

Ovadja Josef is the father of the Sephardic Grand Rabbi Yitzchak Josef (born in 1952), who has been in office since 2013 , who inherited his father 30 years after the end of his ten-year term in this office.

Working as a Sephardic Rabbi

As a religious authority, he has made numerous halachic decisions. Some examples:

  • that women are allowed to wear pants ;
  • that paying taxes to the state is right and appropriate, even though it is Zionist and Zionism is rejected by many ultra-Orthodox Jews ;
  • the full recognition of the Falascha and Falaschmura (the Ethiopian Jews) as a tribe belonging to the people of Israel.

With these comparatively liberal responses , he won respect even in secular circles .

Political influence

As “ Maran ” (master), Ovadja Josef determined the course of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party from the background from its founding in 1984 until his death. Insofar as Schas had belonged to the changing coalition governments since 1992 - with the exception of a few years - Josef has since been one of the most politically influential personalities in Israel without appearing publicly as a politician.

Controversial statements

In 2000 he caused a sensation with the statement that the Jews murdered in the Holocaust were "born again sinners" who had "sinned again and again". In response, the journalist and politician Josef Lapid compared him to Jörg Haider . His statement was criticized by the Arab side that the Palestinians were "evildoers and snakes".

In 2001 Joseph said of the Palestinians that they should not be shown mercy and that rockets should be fired at them and exterminated.

Regarding Hurricane Katrina , which killed around 1,800 Americans in August 2005, Josef made a connection to the 8,000 settlers who had to evacuate the Gaza Strip . Joseph said: The disaster is God's punishment for George Bush's support for the withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. He added that the blacks were killed for not studying the Torah :

“There was a tsunami and there are terrible natural disasters because there are not enough Torah studies ... black people live there (New Orleans). Do black people study the Torah? (God said :) Let's send a tsunami and drown them ... Hundreds of thousands lost their homes. Tens of thousands were killed. All because they have no God ... Bush was behind (the dissolution of) Gush Katif , he encouraged Sharon to dissolve Gush Katif ... We have 15,000 displaced persons here (in Israel) and 150,000 (displaced persons) there (in the US). It was God's retribution. God doesn't rip anyone off. "

In a public prayer, the spiritual leader of the Shas party declared in late August 2010: “May all the wicked who hate Israel, such as ' Abu Masen ' and all Palestinians, disappear from our world. May the plague attack you. "

On October 16, 2010, the rabbi caused a stir when he claimed that all non-Jews ( goyim ) were in the world to serve Jews. God gave them a life in the world solely for this purpose.

In May 2012, he announced that non-Jews would not be allowed to be treated by Jewish doctors on the Sabbath . An exception can only be granted if two physicians start treating the patient at the same time.

In August 2012, Ovadia called on his followers to pray for the annihilation of Iran and Hezbollah on Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) . Literally he said: "May God destroy them and wipe them from the world". He quoted a few psalms.

literature

Web links

Commons : Ovadja Josef  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Christian Rößler: Ovadia Josef died . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 8, 2013, p. 6.
  2. ↑ Peter Münch: The chief rabbi. Ovadia Joseph shaped Israel's religious and political life for decades, now he has died at the age of 93 . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 8, 2013, p. 9.
  3. ↑ a b בֵּית הַכְּנֶסֶת הַגָּדוֹל - אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד: O'hel Mo'ed Synagogue , accessed April 16, 2020.
  4. ↑ Spiritual head of the Sephardi died (ORF.at, accessed on October 7, 2013)
  5. ↑ Great loss for the Torah world ( Tachles , October 7, 2013)
  6. ↑ Hans-Christian Rößler: Farewell in a sea of ​​people . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 8, 2013, p. 6.
  7. ↑ Peter Münch: Unholy dispute among the pious . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 3, 2015, p. 9.
  8. ↑ Ariel Wyler: Auschwitz - a higher justice? The contentious testimony of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . August 21, 2000 ( PDF; 16 kB )
  9. ↑ Rabbi tones down Holocaust slur . In: BBC News . August 7, 2000
  10. ^ Lisa Beyer, Eric Silver: Heresy and Holocaust . In: Time . August 21, 2000
  11. ^ Greg Myre: On the Air, Palestinians Soften Tone on Israelis . In: The New York Times . December 15, 2004
  12. ^ Zvi Alush: Rabbi: Hurricane punishment for pullout . In: Ynetnews . September 7, 2005
  13. ↑ Larry Cohler-Esses: Nature's Wrath, Or God's? ( Memento of October 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Jewish Week . September 16, 2005
  14. ^ Zvi Alush: Rabbi: Hurricane punishment for pullout . In: Ynetnews . September 7, 2005
  15. ↑ Israel: Mighty Rabbi wishes all Palestinians the "plague" . In: Spiegel Online . August 29, 2010
  16. ↑ Natasha Mozgovaya: ADL slams Shas spiritual leader for saying non-Jews “were born to serve Jews” . In: Haaretz . October 20, 2010
  17. ^ Rabbi Yosef: Treating gentiles violates Sabbath . In: Ynetnews . 17th May 2012
  18. ↑ Jacob Edelist: Rav Ovadia Yosef: We Must Pray for the Destruction of Iran . In: The Jewish Press. 26./27. August 2012
personal data
SURNAME Josef, Ovadja
ALTERNATIVE NAMES עובדיה יוסף; Jossef, Ovadia; Joseph, Obadja; Yosef, Ovadia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli rabbi
DATE OF BIRTH September 23, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Baghdad
DATE OF DEATH October 7, 2013
Place of death Jerusalem