The Greatness of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ZT’L

0:12Rav Moshe Shmuel Shapira, alav hashalom, was one of the leaders at a time when the Sephardi and Ashkenazi world in Israel went to war on a regular basis. Many people attacked Rav Ovadia on a regular basis, with a lot of machloket. Building the Sephardi Empire in Eretz Yisrael, baruch Hashem, where at this stage They're literally 50% or maybe even more than 50% of the religious world in Israel. When Rabbi Ovadia started, you could count the number of Sephardi Jews that were religious in one small, tiny community—thousands, five hundred, a few hundred—nothing. What people don't understand is what he did for the entire world of Torah, not just for the Sephardi world. He built yeshivot, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, it didn't make a difference. But along the way to build something, the Satan sends a lot of messengers to go against him. And a lot of people tried to destroy him in different ways, even if they were a keeper of a hat and a beard and everything. And one time they came...

1:38Moshe Shapira. And I said to the Rabbi here, "Gathering signatures. We need your signature to go against it. How about you?" Rabbi Shapira is one of the Gedolei HaDor. If he signs this letter, you can be assured many, many others will sign, not even knowing what the argument is, but simply because he said it. People that have Emunat Chachamim, they don't need to know the reason why he said yes or no. Allowed, not allowed. If he said it, it must be true. If he said it, he must have investigated it. If he said it, there has to be a reason. People that appreciate Chachamim know that Chachamim don't just say things just to say them, like small talk. And what did you do this weekend?

2:38How's your wife? Oh, how old is Yankele now? He's three. Oh, Baruch Hashem. They don't have those kinds of conversations, Rabotai. Chachamim don't ask you about how Yankele is at three years old. They don't ask. They're too busy doing Gemara in their head. They're too busy trying to figure out Emet. Ki ten emet leYaakov. Giving truth to Yaakov, to Am Yisrael. You can't give truth if you're thinking about your next-door neighbor's new car or where you're going to go on vacation for Pesach. So when they came to Rav Shapira and they said, "We're actually going against Rav Ovadia. We need your signature, please." He said, "Well, before I sign, I'd like to tell you a little story. You know, many years ago..." I heard of this Gaon. Someone that people were talking about. He's a Gaon in the Torah. I said, who is this Gaon? You have to see this kid. This genius, genius young man. A Rabbi, but he's something special. Who is this? What's his name? Ovadia. Where does he live? And they told me where he lived. I said, I'm going to go visit him.

4:03And I went to the area that they told me he lived, and I saw poverty everywhere. But I couldn't seem to find the house. I was looking for a house, and I couldn't seem to find it, he said. But then I saw this shack that looked like a shipping container. You know, shipping containers? They don't have rooms inside the shipping containers. It's just one room. But let's say you cut it in half. A shipping container, you cut it in half. And I saw something like that and it had a door. Oh, and then somebody came out of it. Looked like a respectable person. And he was expecting me. And it was a young man named Rabbi Ovadiah. And I went and I sat down with him, and he welcomed me in too. And as soon as we sat, I saw that there were some kids in the background. But then, when we turned around and we went inside, they all disappeared. Everyone disappeared. I don't know where they went. I didn't really ask any questions; it's not my business. But I noticed as we were there, there were no rooms. There was no bathroom. There was no bedroom. There was simply a table with two chairs.

5:20It's a bed somewhere, but there are no rooms. There's one chair for me, there's one chair for him. And we start going through the entire Torah. Going through the entire Torah, this one said this, this one said this, I said this, da-da-da, da-da-da, poof, like mamash Al Har Sinai. Going and we're delving deeper and deeper into really unbelievable Torah. After about 45 minutes or an hour, all of a sudden, I hear a little cry, a little baby crying, and I look around. There's no baby. I hear again, a sound like a little cry of a baby. And I noticed the cry is coming from under the table. And I peek under the table where we've been learning for the last hour, Vavadya and I. And I see that it is the Rabbanit and six children under the table.

6:40Because there's no other room for them to go anywhere else. There's no money for them to go anywhere. They can't afford to go anywhere. And the rabbanit is there with six kids, letting them know, "Abba is studying Torah. We need to be quiet." Until when? Until Abba is finished. And I said at that moment, Someone that could study Torah under these conditions is going to be a Gadol HaTorah. Another person saw Rabbi Ovadia studying in the same house, and he said, "I saw he had one kid on one shoulder, another kid on the left shoulder, another kid on the back, and another kid he was moving with his foot, the stroller." Another one he was holding, and then he had a Gemara that he was reading. And he was in the depths of studying, as if nothing was happening like this. It's a perfectly normal condition, as if it was perfectly quiet and the kids weren't screaming and yelling and jumping on his head. And he was inside the Torah, but being a father too.

8:06So Rav Shapira looks at the people that came to visit and he said, what about you? Did you study Torah like this? Did you study under these conditions in a shipping container? Do you have a Rabbanit that is such a Rabbanit that is gonna keep the kids quiet so Abba can learn Torah with the visitor? Quiet, six kids, quiet under the table. No one even knows you're there for an hour. You have something like that, you study Torah like him. Before we sign against this person, did you study with him? Did you do the same thing at least? Or are you too busy flying your private jet and using the new Jeep and Mercedes model? From the busha of the story, they all ran away like flies. What a shame it is to hear when people say, "Yeah, but that's just one opinion," when one of the greatest rabbis in history wrote something, said something, and...

9:28It doesn't need to just be Rav Ovadia. It could be Rav Elyashiv. It could be Rav Wosner. It could be any of the giants. And he wrote something, and people dismiss it like, ah, yeah, he wrote it. Somebody else wrote something else. Ah, there's many opinions. That, Rabotai, is Shalom Yehi Li. That's a person that says, "Peace be upon me. I'm just going to decide who to follow, when to follow, what to do, and how to do it. I'm okay. You do you, I'll do me. Live and let live." And for that, Rabotai, those types of people bring such a horrible tragedy to their life. The Chachamim say this attitude only brings tragedy. Rashi says on the Pasuk, this attitude... only brings tragedy.