«כל המלמד בן חבירו תורה מעלה עליו הכתוב כאילו ילדו» (סנהדרין יט ע״)

“Anyone who teaches someone else’s child Torah, the verse ascribes him credit as if he had given birth to the student” (Talmud Bavli, Sanhedrin 19b).

These days the Jewish world said goodbye with great pain to one of the most prestigious religious leaders and educators of our time: our teacher, Rabbi Shalom Cohen zz”l, head of the Council of Torah Sages and of the leading Talmudic school for Sephardic Jews in Jerusalem, the Porat Yosef Yeshiva. Hundreds of Argentines, including myself, had the honor of studying there. The Rabbi of Rabbis has left us orphans. We deeply mourn this great loss for the Jewish world and the whole society.

The death of Hacham Shalom – as he was affectionately called by his students and inner circle – has caused national grief because he was a world-renowned religious leader and a true servant of God. For those of us who had the merit of learning intimately from him and living so close on a daily basis, his loss is a double mourning, much more painful and profound.

In addition to being a distinguished religious leader, a great Hasid (devotee) and a brilliant Talmudist, Hacham Shalom was, above all, a true teacher, a master pedagogue, in the deepest and strictest sense of the word.

In the following lines, I will try to reflect – starting both from his general trajectory and from my particular experience as one of his students – about his exemplary vocation as an educator.

Roots

The Hacham Shalom was born within the most prestigious Sephardic Talmudic and Kabbalistic intelligentsia of the early 20th century: the circle of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva of the Old City of Jerusalem, founded exactly a century ago, in 1922. Many of the most brilliant Talmudic and mystical minds in Baghdad and Aleppo gathered there and it became the most important and influential cradle of Sephardic rabbinate in the 20th century, both in Israel and in the diaspora.

Hacham Shalom’s father was Hacham Efraim Cohen, a native of Baghdad and a student of the famous Rabbi Yosef Chaim, author of the book “Ben Ish Hai”, and head of the Kabbalistic school of Porat Yosef. Hacham Efraim’s brother, Naim Zilkha, was a distinguished leader of the Iraqi Jewish community, a member of the Iraqi House of Representatives, president of the Diyala Province civil courts, and a lecturer at the Baghdad law school.

The head of the Talmudic school of Porat Yosef, where Hacham Shalom was a student, was the famous Aleppine Talmudist Hacham Ezra Attie. My great-grandfather, the Head of the Aleppine Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem, Hacham Abraham Antebi Sacca, was one of the rabbis who examined the young students of Porat Yosef in the years when Hacham Shalom was still a little student.

To capture the influence and impact of Porat Yosef in the Sephardic Jewry of the 20th century, it is enough to name some of its graduates in its first decades: the Chief Rabbi of Israel my teacher Rabbi Ovadia Yosef; the Chief Rabbi of Israel Mordechai Eliyahu; the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv Chaim David Halevi; the Chief Rabbis of the Aleppines in New York: Hacham Yaacov Kassin and Hacham Baruch Ben Haim; the Chief Rabbi of Panama Hacham Zion Levy; Mr. Shaul Sutton Dabbah, president of the Sephardic Congregation of Buenos Aires, among others.

On the initiative and with the contribution of the great Baghdad philanthropist from Calcutta Yosef Abraham Shalom (Baghdad 1833 – Calcutta 1911), in addition to constructing the building and taking care of the maintenance of the Yeshiva, within the Porat Yosef complex, houses were built for its Hachamim and teachers. In one of those houses, within the same Yeshiva, the Hacham Shalom was born and raised in an environment of saints and sages. Since childhood, he was passionate about studies and was considered a brilliant mind. He told his students how from a young age he was always very curious, that he wanted to know everything, and that curiosity is the key to wisdom.

His career as educator

All his youth was devoted to intensive studies within Porat Yosef. At the age of 24 he began to work there as a Talmud teacher. After the reopening of Porat Yosef in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967, after the 6-day War, he was appointed, at only 37 years old, as Rosh Yeshiva (director) of Porat Yosef, which was already the most prestigious Sephardic Talmudic academy of the time. Since then, for more than 5 decades, he trained generations and generations of rabbis and religious teachers from all over Israel and the world.

His perseverance and dedication were admirable. For more than 50 years, he taught his famous Talmud and Halacha classes – in which I had the merit of participating – without interruption during the 7 days of the week: from Sunday to Thursday on the Talmudic treatise of the school year, Fridays and Saturdays on Shabbat laws. Until his last days, at the age of 91 and with all his physical limitations, he continued teaching all his daily classes to young people, approximately aged 18, just as he did when I was his student 40 years ago (in his classes on Fridays and Saturdays listeners of all ages used to participate).

Teaching was for him a sacred work and this was – apart from the content of the courses – one of the most important of his lessons. He lived teaching as an act of love. He loved his students like his own children. As a natural response, we loved him as our own father. A month ago, I had the merit of being with him receiving his teaching and inspiration. The last sentence he said to me was “I am happy that even with my illness I can continue teaching classes at the Yeshiva.”

My experience as a student

In 1981, at the age of 17, I began my studies at Porat Yosef. The Hacham Shalom was the second year teacher at the Yeshiva. He was serious and friendly at the same time, and displayed a clever and sharp sense of humor. His succinct way of speaking and answering questions was wonderful and he enlightened us with his purity, humility and honesty.

I studied with him the Talmud treatises Gittin and Kiddushin, which deal with the questions of marriage and divorce in Jewish law. Unlike other teachers who presented their Talmudic lessons already elaborated and explained, having already prepared their clear explanation of the sources, Hacham Shalom presented us with the different relevant sources and read and studied them with us. He explained a little, but only what was necessary; this made the students themselves make an effort to understand, ask questions, make our own interpretations and sharpen our minds. I still keep my notebooks where I wrote down all his lessons as gold.

Once a month he lectured in front of the entire yeshiva on philosophy and ethics. These talks were excellent. He used to take an idea from a great thinker, adapt it, add to it and change it a little bit, always with some really impressive innovative idea.

While I was studying with him, a publication arrived at the Yeshiva to participate on a Talmudic essay national contest organized by the Agudat Yisrael movement. For the contest, I prepared a paper on a thematic unit (sugya) of the Kiddushin treatise. When I finished writing the essay, I showed it to Hacham Shalom and he read it. I remember him asking me if I had copied it from somewhere and I told him no, I had written and developed it myself. His question excited me, because it indicated that it was well written and that the analysis was interesting. He told me that it was very well exposed and congratulated me. His words were what made me send the work and after a few months I received a letter to participate in the award ceremony to collect the second prize. I couldn’t believe it, it was a huge satisfaction and I had made great progress in my studies. At the time, I was 18 years old and hesitating whether to pursue a rabbinical career or not. His moral support and the fact that the writing won the national award of Agudat Yisrael, managed – among other factors – to convince me to continue. When I read that work today, I think it had some weaknesses. Looking back, I realize that Hacham Shalom’s question was actually one of his ways of encouraging us and filling us with reassurance and enthusiasm. A month before his death, the last time I had the merit of visiting him, I reminded him of this anecdote. Hacham Shalom smiled, hinting that he knew I hadn’t copied it but he did it to foster my self-esteem.

On one occasion, I lost a pen and, as usual, I wrote a note on the yeshiva billboard: I asked whoever found the pen to please return it to me. After a few days, Hacham Shalom approached me after evening prayers – it was very unusual for the head of the yeshiva to contact a student in this way – and asked if it was I who had lost the pen. I answered yes and got ready to receive it and thank him. However, before delivering it, he began to inquire about its color, characteristics and the color of the interior tank. I was able to give him some information, but I couldn’t remember the color of the interior tank. I smiled and in the end, he gave it to me. In this way, he taught me how to fulfill the mitzvah of “Hashabat Abeda” (the precept of returning lost objects to their owners), the concern and responsibility for other people’s goods and the importance of small details.

I had the merit of maintaining a fluid relationship with Hacham Shalom from my beginnings in Porat Yosef until today. He signed my first rabbinical ordination when I was 19 years old. He performed the Pidyon Haben ceremony for my eldest son as Cohen. I had the merit of entertaining him with my wife in our house in Buenos Aires. He also visited us in the Great Synagogue of the Sephardic Community in Buenos Aires on Camargo Street where he delivered one of his wonderful lectures. I had the honor to have my son-in-law and one of my sons studying with him at Porat Yosef and they, too, felt his deep affection and delighted in his wisdom.

Hacham Shalom teachings  

During the last 40 years, I visited him periodically on all my trips to Israel. We had many talks on various topics. It is not the place to dwell on those talks, but they are always in my heart and mind to guide me.

He instilled in me that the Torah should not be taught or required of everyone in the same way. Just as doctors treat each of their patients according to their particular diagnosis and situation, in the same way we have to teach Torah to each one according to their own situation and environment. He told me so when I took office as Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic Community of Buenos Aires, fearing that I would try to herd everyone in the same line that I have as a rabbi and a religious. To act like this is to destroy the future of the community and of Israel, because we lose the individuality of each person. Every day I reassess his teaching, since many leaders err on that point and lose parishioners from the community.

On several occasions, he stressed that his father, Hacham Efraim Cohen, Chief of the Kabbalists of Porat Yosef and one of the greatest of his time, always preached and warned against sorcerers and magicians who use Judaism and Kabbalah as a pretext to cure or give advice. He said that it is a sacrilege and a lack of respect for the Torah. He considered that these people are false, tricksters and they shamelessly lie, flaunting the Torah for their personal interests. On one occasion he told me he rejected those who promote segulot and amulets. He said that Rabbi Ovadia Seforno (Italy 1475-1550) – one of the authors he liked to quote the most – wrote that, just as God spoke directly to people, people too, when they need something, should speak only to God without intermediaries. . He also told me the words of Rabbi Menachem HaMeiri (Provence, 1249-1315): in the Talmud it is said that when someone is sick he should go to the Hacham to pray for health (Talmud Bavli, Bava Batra 116a), but the Meiri explains that it means that he must go to be taught to pray. I suggested that he make a conference (kenes) for his students and that he clarify for us how to deal with the false sorcerers, magicians and fortune-tellers that abound in the Jewish world. He accepted.

In recent years, he lamented, on several occasions, the deterioration in education. He said that our time, when we studied with him, was a time of great care and dedication to study. In particular, he had great admiration for the Argentine students who, according to him, surpassed the locals and those from other nations who came to Porat Yosef. Currently, several of my fellow Argentines from that time of Porat Yosef lead many of the most prestigious Jewish communities in Argentina and Latin America. Today, the Hacham Shalom brand is present and alive in the Jewish world in general and in Argentine Jewry in particular.

 «לא קאי איניש אדעתיה דרביה עד ארבעין שנין» (עבודה זרה ה ע״ב)

“A person does not come to understand the vision of his teacher until after forty years” (Talmud Bavli, Avodah Zarah 5b).

Today, after 40 years of having begun to learn from him, I really understand the great teacher we had. Although we no longer have him physically among us, his teaching and example will always be alive to guide us.