11 Tevet · Yahrzeit
Rabbi Yehoshua Sharabani of Baghdad
The mekubal Rabbi Yehoshua ben Yitzchak Sharabani was born in Baghdad.
Yahrzeit - 11 Tevet
Resting place - Har HaZeitim, Jerusalem
Rabbi Yehoshua studied under many outstanding chachamim, including the Ben Ish Chai. In turn, Rabbi Sharabani became the teacher of David Chaim, the grandson of the Ben Ish Chai.
In 1903, Rabbi Sharabani and his wife Masuda moved to Israel. They settled in Jerusalem, where Rabbi Sharabani began teaching at the Yeshivat "Shoshanim LeDavid" in the Bucharim quarter.
With the establishment of the Yeshivat "Porat Yosef," Rabbi Sharabani began learning and teaching there among many great kabbalists. He studied Kabbalah together with Rabbi Salman Eliyahu and helped publish his book "Kerem Shlomo," filling in missing passages in the manuscripts from memory.
He fasted from Shabbat to Shabbat. He studied Gemara with Rabbi Yaakov Chaim Sofer.
He left this world at around the age of 100, on Shabbat - 11 Tevet, and was already buried on Motzei Shabbat on Har HaZeitim, next to the Maharsha Alfandari and the Kaf HaChaim.
His name has been immortalized in Israel - a street in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem is named in his honor.
Whose Prayers Are Accepted by Heaven
One night in a dream, Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka suddenly discovered that he had fallen seriously ill - one of his arms had swollen severely. Rabbi Yehuda suffered such terrible pain that his face turned blue. His illness kept worsening until he had to go to the local hospital for surgery. The surgery itself also caused terrible suffering, and he cried out so bitterly from the pain that his voice reached his brother, Rabbi Ovadia, who was waiting for him outside the operating room.
On the night he fell ill, the Ben Ish Chai appeared from the World of Truth to his student, the mekubal Rabbi Yehoshua Sharabani, in a dream and called out to him: "Get up, go quickly to the Beit Knesset, open the Heichal, and pray for Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka, that he be healed - he is very ill."
Rabbi Yehoshua awoke and hurried through the dark night to the "Shoshanim LeDavid" synagogue. He opened the Aron HaKodesh and prayed with awe, weeping, that Rabbi Yehuda be healed. He returned home to rest a little before continuing his tefillot at Ayelet HaShachar.
Rabbi Yehoshua lived next door to Rabbi Ezra Attia, who related that after the passing of Rabbi Avraham Adess, whose tefillot Heaven had always answered, he began to worry about whom to turn to for help now. That very day he received an answer in a dream: "Go to Rabbi Yehoshua Sharabani. The Gates of Heaven are always open for his prayers."
In the morning, after finishing Shacharit at the synagogue, Rabbi Yehoshua went to see Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka's mother, the tzadeket Marat Simcha, and asked about her son's condition. She was surprised and asked how he could possibly have known that her son was sick. After all, he had only fallen ill in the middle of the night, and until then had been as healthy as anyone else. Everyone was baffled as to how he had contracted such an illness, but by morning there was already improvement and his pain had eased. Rabbi Yehoshua was overjoyed to hear the good news and asked his children not to reveal his dream until after his passing.
(From the book "A Legacy of Leaders")