Influential spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has died at the age of 93 in Israel.
Rabbi Yosef was notable in Israel for championing the cause of non-European Israeli Jews, as well as for an increasing tendency to voice somewhat controversial opinions despite powerful opposition — earning a rebuke from the US State Department in 2010 for strong statements made about Palestinians.
As word of Rabbi Yosef’s death was received Monday, public lamentations came from many prominent figures. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “the Jewish people have lost one of the wisest men of this generation,” describing the Baghdad-born Rabbi Ovadia Yosef as “a giant in Torah and Jewish law and a teacher for tens of thousands.”
The Times Of Israel published a length piece on the leader’s passing, describing Rabbi Yosef as fairly “liberal,” and recalling a radical change he pushed forth for widowed wives whose husbands died in action:
“It was Yosef, for example, who ensured that the widows of hundreds of IDF troops killed and missing in action in the Yom Kippur War would be able to remarry, even if their husbands’ bodies were not recovered. While some rabbinical leaders believed that there was no choice but to declare those women agunot , or women who are ‘chained’ to a marriage because a husband’s whereabouts cannot be determined, Yosef provided the legal rationale for allowing them to remarry.”
Rabbi Yosef was born to a family of little means in Iraq in 1920, emigrating to Israel in 1924. By 1937, he was challenging the status quo for Persian Jews in Israel, a theme that marked his time in the public sphere throughout his life. When he was 25, he was already well-known and his advice and guidance heavily sought.
In 1970, Rabbi Yosef won the Israel Prize in Rabbinical Literature, and became Israel’s chief Sephardi rabbi in 1972. He retained the position until 1983, forming the Council of Torah Sages the following year.
Yossi Elituv of Orthodox family magazine Mishpacha chronicled Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s lengthy influence in Israel in a book, and commented on news of his death:
“Life challenges the Torah with questions because the world changes, and those changes need to be contended with. Rabbi Ovadia took on every mission.”
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s cause of death was not released, but it is reported that he died after a long illness.
