Ben Zion Abba Shaul

Ben Zion Abba Shaul (בן-ציון אבא-שאול; 31 July 1924 – 13 July 1998; on the Hebrew calendar: 29 Tammuz 5684 – 19 Tammuz 5758) (first name also spelled Ben Sion) was one of the leading Sephardic rabbis, Torah scholars and halakhic arbiters of his day, and the rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem for the last 15 years of his life.

He was responsible for a religious revival among Sephardic Jews with his founding of Ma'ayan HaChinuch HaTorani, a network of Torah schools for Sephardic children in Israel, and was widely known for his ability to give blessings that were fulfilled.

Ben Zion Abba Shaul was born in Jerusalem to Eliyahu and Benaya Abba Shaul, immigrants from Iran.

A shoemaker by trade, Eliyahu was also a Torah scholar and kabbalist; he was Ben Zion's first teacher.

Eliyahu served as gabbai (caretaker and fundraiser) for the Ohel Rachel synagogue in the Bukharim Quarter of Jerusalem for 50 years.

In his old age, his son Ben Zion became the rabbi of the synagogue and another son, Yaakov, became the hazzan.

Abba Shaul was the eldest boy in a family of sixteen children.

Despite their poverty, his parents were committed to raising a family of Torah scholars, even as many other families from Oriental and Sephardi backgrounds were lured into sending their children to Zionist schools.

The family kept many halakhic stringencies, including grinding and baking their own matzot before Passover and avoiding all processed foods — even sugar — during the holiday itself.

Abba Shaul continued to keep these stringencies even after he established his own family.

At the age of 11, Abba Shaul entered Porat Yosef, the pre-eminent Sephardic yeshiva in Jerusalem.

His first teacher was Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka (who was only 21 at the time) and his classmates included the future Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef.

Later, Abba Shaul advanced to the highest shiur, taught by the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Ezra Attiya, with whom he developed a close bond.

Abba Shaul abided by his rosh yeshiva's opinions on all matters and displayed the same approach to learning and to issuing halakhic directives as his mentor.

Abba Shaul displayed great dedication to Torah study.

He learned and reviewed each subject dozens of times until he knew most of Shas and poskim (halakhic commentaries) by heart.

When Abba Shaul was 20 years old, Attiya selected him to be tested by Rabbi Eliezer Silver, a prominent American rabbi who was visiting Israel together with a prospective donor.

Attiya had heard that in another yeshiva which this philanthropist had visited, only one boy was able to answer the rabbi's question, and only after 20 minutes.

Silver asked Abba Shaul a difficult question in the obscure Talmudic order of Tohorot (laws of ritual purity).

When Abba Shaul gave his answer, Silver remarked in astonishment that he had asked the same question of Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (author of Ohr Sameach and Meschech Chochma) 40 years earlier, and that that sage had given the same answer.

Abba Shaul later confided to Attiya that he had had a second answer to the question as well, but since the first answer secured the donation, he didn't want to show off.

In 1948, Abba Shaul married Hadassah, the daughter of Rabbi Yosef Shaharbani, a Torah scholar and son of the kabbalist Rabbi Yehoshua Shaharbani, who was a student of the Ben Ish Chai.

Abba Shaul studied one-on-one with his father-in-law, and his new wife attended his public lectures every Shabbat.

She also tape-recorded his general lecture at the yeshiva; many of his written works come from those tapes.

The couple was childless for many years.

After ten miscarriages, Abba Shaul visited the Chazon Ish and the Belzer Rebbe, refusing to leave until each gave him a blessing for a child.

Their only son, Eliyahu, was named after Abba Shaul's father.

After his marriage, Abba Shaul became a teacher at Talmud Torah Bnei Zion, which he had attended in his youth.

He continued to study at Porat Yosef Yeshiva.

In time, Attiya asked him to serve as rosh yeshiva, but he refused to accept that position as long as his first teacher, Tzadka, was still alive.

He did agree to serve as a lecturer at the yeshiva.

In the 1960s, however, seeing that the knowledge of kabbalah study was waning, he gathered a group of kabbalists and founded the Emet VeShalom Yeshiva for learning kabbalah at night.

Once a year, on the yahrtzeit of the Rashash, he joined the group and showed his fluency in this esoteric wisdom.

After Tzadka's death in 1983, Abba Shaul acceded to the position of rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef.

In his capacity as rosh yeshiva, Abba Shaul maintained a heavy teaching schedule.

For four hours each morning, he lectured to students in the yeshiva; in the afternoons, he taught the laws of Shulchan Aruch to dayanim (rabbinical judges).

On Friday afternoons, he gave a halakha class and question-and-answer session to a packed audience in the Ohel Rachel synagogue, and on Shabbat day he delivered a three-hour discourse in the synagogue.

His diligence in Torah study was legendary; it is said that when he finished delivering a shiur, he was soaked with perspiration.

Abba Shaul was also well-versed in kabbalah.

At first he learned privately on Friday nights.