Rabbi Ezra Attia - Rosh Yeshiva of "Porat Yosef"

Rabbi Ezra ben Yitzchak Attia (1885 - 1970) was one of the greatest Torah teachers in the Sephardic Jewish world in the 20th century. Yahrzeit - 19 Iyar Resting place - Har HaMenuchot, Jerusalem Rabbi Ezra Attia served as Rosh Yeshiva of "Porat Yosef" in Jerusalem for 45 years, raising thousands of students who, together with their own students, make up the core of Sephardic Torah leadership today. Among Rabbi Attia's most famous students are Rishon LeTzion Rav Ovadia Yosef, Rishon LeTzion Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, Rav Ben-Tzion Abba Shaul, and Rav Yitzchak Kaduri. Rabbi Ezra Attia was born on 31 Tu B'Shvat, 1885, in Aleppo, Syria, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. His parents, Yitzchak and Leah, had lost several infant children, and before his birth they went to the grave of the prophet Ezra to pray that if the child they were expecting was a boy, they would name him Ezra and would do everything to ensure he devoted his life to Torah. His father, a respected Aleppo melamed (teacher), was a direct descendant of Rabbi Shem Tov Attia, a student of Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch. When Rabbi Ezra was 16, his family immigrated to the Old City of Jerusalem, to which a large number of rabbis from Aleppo had immigrated. Shortly afterward, his father died, leaving behind an impoverished widow and two orphans. While his mother worked as a housekeeper in the homes of wealthy people, young Ezra devoted himself to Torah study. He studied, prayed, and slept on a bench in a small beit midrash in the Bucharim neighborhood of the New City called "Shoshanim LeDavid," delving into vast amounts of Talmud with commentaries and poskim (halachic rulings). Suffering from poverty, he sustained himself on an evening meal of dry pita seasoned with salt. Late in life, he told his students: "When I was young, I studied Torah while overcoming hardships. When we were lucky, my mother and I had a whole pita split in half, but hunger never bothered me at all." In 1907, Rav Ezra Harari-Raful, another immigrant from Aleppo, founded Yeshivat "Ohel Moed" in Jerusalem. Attia was asked to join its staff together with the outstanding Sephardic rabbis Yosef Yedid HaLevi, head of the Sephardic Beit Din (rabbinical court) of Jerusalem, Shlomo Laniado, and Avraham Chaim Ades. In 1909, Attia married Bolissa Salem, daughter of Rabbi Avraham Salem, a kabbalist. In 1911, their first son was born but died in infancy. At the beginning of World War I, a general mobilization was carried out in the Turkish army, and all able-bodied men were seized off the streets. Ezra's brother, Eliyahu, died of pneumonia while serving in the Turkish army. Two of Jerusalem's leading Sephardic sages, Rav Chaim Shaul Dweck HaCohen and Rav Avraham Ades, secretly smuggled Ezra into Egypt using a forged Russian passport, which at the time did not require a photograph. Attia settled in Cairo. At first he tried his hand at business but quickly lost most of his money. He then met Nissim Nahum, a wealthy refugee who knew him from Jerusalem. With Nahum's support, Attia opened a yeshiva called "Ahava VeAhava" in the basement of the Cairo rabbinate. Under his leadership, the yeshiva grew to 100 students, attracting many people from secular backgrounds. Attia also gave lessons to workingmen and served as a dayan on the Cairo Beit Din. After World War I ended, his wife joined him. They and their two children returned to Jerusalem in 1922. In Jerusalem, Rabbi Ezra Attia returned to his teaching position at Yeshivat "Ohel Moed." He also studied privately with Rabbi Chaim Shaul Dweck and Rabbi Shlomo Eliezer Alfandari. When Yeshivat "Porat Yosef" opened in 1923, "Ohel Moed" merged with the new yeshiva, and Attia was appointed Mashgiach Ruchani. After the sudden death of Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Shlomo Laniado in 1925, Rabbi Ezra Attia was appointed his successor. He served as Rosh Yeshiva for 45 years. His tenure as Rosh Yeshiva was marked by political upheaval. When the Arab riots of 1929 cut off access to the yeshiva building in the Old City, Attia moved classes to several synagogues in the New City and appointed senior students to lead them there, while he personally supervised every location. This situation continued for eight years. During the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, the yeshiva was again evacuated to synagogues in the Katamon, Geula, and Bucharim neighborhoods. This time, however, the yeshiva's main building in the Old City was burned to the ground by Jordanian troops, and along with it, thousands of Attia's unpublished writings were destroyed. He refused to rewrite them, believing they were not meant for publication. In the mid-1950s, Yeshivat "Porat Yosef" and the Gerrer community jointly purchased a plot of land in the Geula neighborhood, where a yeshiva and the Gerrer beit midrash were built side by side. The original yeshiva campus in the Old City was rebuilt and reopened in the 1970s. One of Attia's greatest achievements was changing attitudes toward yeshiva education in the Sephardic world. Until that time, continuing one's studies after bar mitzvah was available only to gifted students from Sephardic families; most Sephardic boys went to work to support their families. Rav Ezra Attia did everything he could to enable boys to continue their studies into their teenage years, repeatedly offering to cover the costs of their education himself. In one instance, a poor boy from Iraq applied for admission to the yeshiva but could not afford the required tuition. Rav Attia went to Rabbi Ben-Tzion Chazan, the yeshiva's founder and secretary, and offered to reduce his own salary to accommodate the boy. Rabbi Chazan then offered to reduce his own salary as well. That boy later became a respected talmid chacham. Rav Attia also played a key role in keeping young Ovadia Yosef in the world of Torah. At one point, the promising young scholar suddenly stopped coming to the yeshiva for several days. Attia visited his home and was shocked by the poverty he saw there. Ovadia's father explained that he had a small grocery store and needed his son to work for him. Attia's attempts to convince the father of the importance of Torah study fell on deaf ears. The next morning, when the father entered his shop, he found Attia standing there in a work apron. The Rosh Yeshiva explained that he had come to the shop early that morning, when Ovadia was opening it. He told the boy that he had found a replacement who would work for free, and sent him back to the yeshiva. "You said you needed someone to help, and that you couldn't afford to pay. I am that someone. Your son's studies are more important than my time!" In the end, the father relented and allowed his son to continue his studies. Rav Attia personally attended to every student in his yeshiva. He tested the younger boys every two to three months, gave a daily shiur to the older boys, taught an evening shiur to the married kollel students, and delivered a weekly mussar (ethics) lecture — often lasting up to two hours — for the entire yeshiva. He also developed a unique Sephardic approach to Torah and mussar. He always carried a copy of "Chovot HaLevavot" ("Duties of the Heart") with him and strongly urged his students to do the same. He instructed every class in the yeshiva to begin each day with a short mussar lesson. He was held in very high regard by Torah leaders such as Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank and the Chazon Ish. After visiting him, the Chazon Ish remarked: "The Rosh Yeshiva has the reasoning ability of one of the Rishonim." He possessed encyclopedic knowledge of all areas of Torah. One of his leading students, Rav Ovadia Yosef, revealed at Attia's funeral that his teacher knew the entire "Choshen Mishpat" (the section of the Shulchan Aruch dealing with monetary law) by heart. Rav Attia also served as a dayan (rabbinical judge) on the Sephardic Beit Din of Jerusalem. Rav Attia fulfilled his goal of training Sephardic Torah scholars who could build up Sephardic communities as a whole. Over the course of his tenure, he taught thousands of students, including many future leaders of Sephardic Jewry in Israel, the United States, Europe, South Africa, and South America. Among these students were: Rav Ovadia Yosef and Rav Mordechai Eliyahu, future Chief Sephardic Rabbis of Israel; Rav Yitzchak Kaduri, the renowned kabbalist; Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka, who succeeded him as Rosh Yeshiva of "Porat Yosef"; Rabbi Ben-Tzion Abba Shaul; Rabbi Baruch Ben Chaim, who became a leader of the Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York; Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Chaim, rabbi of the Mashadi community in Great Neck, New York; and Rabbi Zion Levy, future Chief Rabbi of Panama. Old age and frailty forced Rav Attia to give up most of his responsibilities at the yeshiva. However, he continued to give advice and guidance to all who needed it. In this way, he continued to nurture the Sephardic Torah leaders whom he had trained and sent out to communities around the world. In 1969 he became seriously ill. He passed away in Jerusalem on the morning of May 25, 1970 (19 Iyar 5730) and was buried on Har HaMenuchot. He was succeeded as Rosh Yeshiva by Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka, who had studied under him since the age of 14. May the merit of Rav Ezra Attia protect Am Yisrael! https://dailyzohar.com/tzadikim/1244-Rabbi-Ezra-Attiya   Tales of the Tzadikim A Nest on the Head Rav Ezra Attia, though head of the most important Sephardic yeshiva "Porat Yosef," never forgot his neighbors. Every day after morning prayers, he would teach them a page of Talmud. Once, a miraculous incident occurred during his lesson that strengthened the interest of many simple Jews in Torah and reinforced their faith in the truth of every statement of the Sages. While studying tractate Chullin, Rav Ezra reached page 139, which discusses the mitzvah of shiluach ha-ken (the prohibition against taking a mother bird from her nest while she is sitting on her eggs). This Torah commandment is stated in our weekly Torah portion. We read: "If a bird's nest chances before you on the road, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, and the mother sitting upon the fledglings or upon the eggs, you shall not take the mother together with the young. You shall surely send away the mother, and take the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you, and that you may prolong your days" (Devarim 22:6-7). This passage speaks of a bird's nest found by a traveler on the ground or in a tree. But what, the Sages asked, if the nest is found on a person's head — what does the law say about that? "A nest on a person's head?" one of the listeners at Rav Attia's lesson exclaimed in surprise. "Where has such a thing ever been seen?! Does the Talmud really discuss hypothetical problems completely divorced from reality?!" "The words of the Sages of the Talmud are kodesh kodashim (holy of holies)," Rav Ezra retorted, "and we have no right to question them." But Chaim (as the disagreeing listener was named) kept arguing, raising his voice. His forehead reddened, his nostrils flared, and no arguments or admonitions from the Rav could stop him any longer. At a certain point, Rav Ezra felt as though he were talking to a wall. The discussion was becoming pointless. So the Rav stopped responding to his opponent's sharp jabs, closed his eyes, and turned to the Almighty with all his heart. "Master of the world! The only thing I ask of You is that this mistaken man not succeed in sowing doubt among my other students, and that his careless words not tarnish the honor of the Sages of the Talmud or undermine faith in their words!" Suddenly the door swung open, and Dani walked in. Dani used to attend the Rav's prayers and lessons regularly, but he hadn't been seen for almost six months. The Rav had assumed he must have moved to another neighborhood. "Dani, come in, sit down! Where have you been all this time?" "I was sent on a long business trip to India, a country full of wonders and mysteries. There, yogis practice meditation, and, as you understand, not simple meditation, but the most transcendent kind! Such a yogi will sit in the lotus position for hours, as if turned to stone — nothing can move him from his place. And I don't just mean hours — days on end! I saw one man who had a bird build a nest on his head, and he didn't even move. The chicks had already hatched, and he was still sitting there with the nest on his head. I even began to wonder whether the mitzvah of shiluach ha-ken could be performed in such a case. But at the last moment I had doubts. What would the Rav say about this?" "What will the Rav say?" Rav Attia responded animatedly. "The Rav will say that Moshe is true, and his Torah is true and just!" And everyone present said in one voice: "Moshe is true, and his Torah is true — true, and his Torah is true!" (based on a commentary by Rav Ezra Attia - http://www.evrey.com/sitep/nedglav/arkhiv1.php?zik=18&ned=33&glav=ki_teze)