Bidspirit auction | Kol Eliyahu – The Personal

Kol Eliyahu – The Personal Copy of Maran Rabbi Ovadia Yosef With [3] Lines in His Holy Handwriting - Sefer Kol Eliyahu – Commentaries on the Torah, the Prophets and Writings, and Tractates of the Talmud, by “the Gaon of Vilna, ” Rabbi Eliyahu, the Gra. Piotrków, 1905 [תרס”ה]. Photographic Edition. The personal copy of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, preeminent Sephardic sage and leader of Mizrachi Jewry. On the front flyleaf appears a rare handwritten dedication in his beautiful script, reading: “This book was purchased for me in my name by my father-in-law, Rabbi Avraham Fattal, may he live and be well, upon my return from Egypt, Av 5710 (1950).” This copy was bought immediately upon Rabbi Ovadia’s return to Israel in 1950 by his father-in-law, the kabbalist Rabbi Avraham Fattal HaLevi. It was one of the very few books in Rabbi Ovadia’s possession during his early years in Israel, when he had not yet rebuilt his personal library. The volume bears numerous signs of intense study and is mentioned several times in his published works (Chazon Ovadia on Passover, pp. 26, 73; Me’or Yisrael, p. 126). A rare, sacred, and historic artifact – the personal copy of the greatest Sephardic sage of the modern era, containing the teachings of the greatest Ashkenazic sage, the Vilna Gaon. A remarkable link in the golden chain of Jewish scholarship – from Maimonides, to Rabbi Yosef Karo, to the Ben Ish Chai, and culminating in Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Bibliographic details: 104 pages. 23 cm. Condition: Good. Numerous signs of use, a few small tears, several detached leaves, worn wrapper binding. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (1920–2013), Chief Rabbi of Israel (Rishon LeZion), spiritual leader and President of the Council of Torah Sages of the Shas movement, was the foremost Sephardic halachic authority of his generation, known as the Posek HaDor (“decisor of the generation”). In 1947 he moved to Egypt, where he served as Av Beit Din (head of the rabbinical court). While there, he discovered serious flaws in the kosher supervision system of public institutions, which led to conflicts with certain community figures, including local rabbis. Following these disputes, he resigned from his post and returned to Israel in the summer of 1950. His era marked the golden age of Sephardic Jewry in the Land of Israel. At his funeral in 2013, an estimated half a million people attended—the largest funeral in the history of the State of Israel.