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From the Jerusalem Post [mods pulled it when I posted it independently]:

Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, the legendary centenarian kabbalist, passed away Saturday evening due to complications caused by pneumonia.

Nobody knows precisely how old Kaduri was as the time of his death at Bikur Holim Hospital in Jerusalem. Estimates range between 106 and 113.

Kaduri's funeral was scheduled to be held Sunday afternoon, with the funeral procession scheduled to leave Jerusalem's Bukharan neighborhood for Har Hamenuhot cemetery at 1:30 p.m.

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.

n 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.