Posted on 01/29/2006 10:16:44 AM PST by ChicagoHebrew
Famed Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri was laid to rest at Har Hamenuhot in Givat Shaul late Sunday afternoon.
Over 300,000 people, including rabbis and public figures, took part in the funeral procession. The eulogies and procession began from the Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva in Jerusalem's Bukharian Quarter at 12:00 p.m.
Among those who eulogized Kaduri were Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and President Moshe Katsav. Former foreign minister Silvan Shalom and his wife Judy were also in attendance.
Magen David Adom provided 10 ambulances and 22 motorbikes to secure the funeral procession, and had also positioned a number of ambulances throughout the city to minimize response time in light of the heavy traffic congestion caused by the procession.
Kaduri passed away Saturday evening due to complications caused by pneumonia.
Nobody knows precisely how old Kaduri was at the time of his death at Bikur Holim Hospital in Jerusalem. Estimates range between 106 and 115.
Legend has it that when Kaduri was 16 years old, Rabbi Yosef Haim, known as the Ben Ish Chai, one of the most influential Sephardi rabbis of the 19th century, blessed Kaduri with a long life.
Kaduri came to Israel from Baghdad at age 17 and studied under several legendary kabbalists, including Rabbi Yehuda Petaya, author of Beit Lechem Yehuda, and Rabbi Efraim Cohen, head of a group of kabbalists who studied at Porat Yosef Yeshiva. Other rabbis included in that study group were Rabbi Ezra Atia, head of Porat Yosef, Rabbi Mansour Ben-Shimon and Rabbi Salman Eliyahu, father of former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu.
Kaduri later studied at Rabbi Yehuda Hadaya's Yeshivat Beit El in Jerusalem's Makor Baruch neighborhood. Rabbi Shmuel Darzi, one of Kaduri's last students and study partners passed away in January. Darzi was in his eighties.
Kaduri, known as "the senior kabbalist," is the last of a generation of Sephardi Jewish mystics. His close circle of friends and family say he was one of the few known living kabbalists who used "practical kabbalah," a type of Jewish magic aimed at affecting a change in the world.
They say Kaduri learned from the great kabbalists of previous generations the practice of writing amulets which heal, enhance fertility and bring success.
Also, according to his son David, Kaduri was involved in the removal of at least 20 dybbuks, lost souls that stray into the hapless bodies of living people to torment them.
However, according to sources close to the ancient mystic, even Kaduri never dabbled in the most dangerous types of Kabbalah that included forcing oaths on demons and evil spirits. Kabbalists believe that it is possible, in theory, to use holy names to trap demons and harness their powers. But those who do risk heavenly retribution.
More rational schools of Judaism are skeptical about Kaduri's powers. In contrast, in certain Sephardi circles Kaduri is considered a miracle worker. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of testimonials by Kaduri's faithful back up this claim to supernatural power. But even in the Sephardi yeshiva world, rabbis such as Rabbi Ovadia Yosef discounted Kaduri's ability to work miracles.
Nevertheless, few doubted Kaduri's righteousness and vast knowledge of both conventional and more esoteric Jewish thought and law. For most of his life Kaduri was unknown to the general public. He led a modest life of study and prayer and worked as a bookbinder. During the past decade and a half he served as the head of Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva in Jerusalem's Bukharan quarter.
Kaduri's reputation as supernatural mystic began during and after the Yom Kippur War. Families of soldiers missing in action came to Kaduri to ask him to use his powers to determine whether their loved ones were dead or alive.
Kaduri's popularity reached an all-time high in the 1996 elections when the centenarian kabbalist's amulets helped Shas achieve an amazing electoral success. At the time, Shas was at an electoral low point. Shas managed to distribute 100,000 amulets before chairman of the Elections Committee Theodore Or prohibited their use. Soon after Ophir Paz-Pines drafted a bill ratified by the Knesset that anchored Or's prohibition in legislation. But the amulets did the trick: Shas mustered 10 mandates.
In the 2003 elections Kaduri's grandson Yossi, who had demanded and been refused a realistic spot on the Shas list, attempted to use his grandfather to rekindle the electoral success of 1996 with his own political party called Ahavat Yisrael. But the party failed to gain the minimum votes needed to enter the Knesset.
Kaduri's son David claims his father passed on to him the secrets of amulet-writing. However, others claim that Kaduri's metaphysical powers cannot be inherited.
"He is the last of a lost generation," said one source close to the Kaduri family.
Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef and the Shas council of Torah sages issued a statement mourning the loss of Rabbi Kaduri. "All of the people of Israel today are one family in mourning that the man who all of Israel was praying for went heavenward," Shas chairman Eli Yishai said on their behalf.
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger called Kaduri a great tzaddik, and said that he was the last survivor of the great Kabbalah giants.
Kaduri is survived by two children, Rachel and David, and his second wife Dorit, in her fifties, who married Kaduri 12 years ago. Sarah, Kaduri's first wife, passed away 17 years ago.
I wonder if Madonna will be there ((ducking and running))
"They say Kaduri learned from the great kabbalists of previous generations the practice of writing amulets which heal, enhance fertility and bring success."
I think Moses would take a dim view of all this.
Video: Rabbi Kadouri meeting the Lubavitcher Rebbe
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I think Moses would take a dim view of all this.
Spot on. I once asked a Karaite (Jewish Karaites are Biblical only, they reject the Talmud and Kabbalah) his opinion of Kabbalah. He didn't mince words.
He said it was a form of Jewish witchcraft and magic...which the Jews assimulated into Judaism from the Pagans. He then quoted the words of Moses in Deut. 18:9-12.
9 ... thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. [the Pagans]
10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD...
By dabbling in pagan sorcery, the Jews committed spiritual adultery, outwardly Jews, but by blending in pagan sorcery they had become religious whores. The prophets repeatedly charged them with religious whoredom. Isaiah said to them:
Isaiah 57:3 But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
Wow. Where'd you find a Karaite? They're quite rare. Very intriguing belief system, thogh.
The Kabbalah is not necessarily witchcraft, by the by. It's mysticism, but not -necessarily- witchcraft. Depends what you do with the knowledge, or philosophy. It can be, though, so it's dangerous. That's why only righteous men who've been studying the Torah for decades are supposed to learn it.
Karaites aren't Jewish.
Why? The split between Karaites and Talmudic Jews took place around 800AD. This when the Masoretic version of Old Testament took its final form (this version is also being used by Protestants)
Is the 'why' a rhetorical question?
No, it is not.
Karaites aren't Jewish.
Please explain why they are not. Blood lineage?
Their religious beliefs? If it is the latter, their beliefs appear to truly adhere to the the teachings of Moses. The Talmud and Kabbalah are add ons.
Somewhat similar to the Mormons with their add on literature...literature they, like the Talmudists and Kabbalists, esteem on a par with the Bible itself.
Well, so say the Rabbis.... who have to really twist Halacha to get there.
You answered your own question. Karaites quit the team a long long time ago and refused to accept Rabbinic law, the Talmud. Therefore, they do not practice Judaism. Judaism IS Torah Written Law plus (Rabbinic) Oral Law. That is the definition of Judaism. Anyone who doesn't accept the 13 principles of Faith is off the team. Torah refers to Oral and Written law.
It is matter of debate. Karaites put the Old Testament before Talmud/Rabbinic law and consider themselves Jews.
Would you say that Protestants are not Christian because they put Bible above the Church tradition and commentaries?
There is no debate. Karaites don't consider themselves Jewish, nor do Jews consider Karaites Jewish. If you want to consider them Jewish, that is your business. You may also consider Madonna to be Jewish. That doesn't make it so. Karaites don't accept Oral Law. That makes them a different religion. How Christians define themselves is their business.
Those are per http://www.jewfaq.org/beliefs.htm, as follows:
It looks like they do.
>Judaism IS Torah Written Law plus (Rabbinic) Oral Law. That is the definition of Judaism.
I thought their sacred book was the bible.
What is torah, anyway? I've never read the torrah itself. Only heard of the name torrah.
If I am not mistake "torah" means Law. So it would the five books of Moses?
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