Mourning Hagaon Harav Ovadiah Yosef, zt”l

On the first day of shivah after the unprecedented massive levayah on Monday for Hagaon Harav Ovadiah Yosef, zt”l, large numbers of people from all over the country and all sectors of the population thronged to the Rav’s home in Har Nof, Yerushalayim to fulfill the mitzvah of nachum aveilim, consoling mourners.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres were among them.

One of the sons, Harav David Yosef, the Rav of Har Nof, reminded the prime minister of a visit he paid to his father several months ago, after the passing of his son, Harav Yaakov Yosef: “He told you then that ‘I’ve lost a son, but what is being done to the Torah is more painful’ — and you did not respond.”

Harav Dovid noted that his father was very much hurt by the fact that he received no response from Netanyahu, and he spoke of it.

“I feel that this is a tzavaah [will] of my father’s, the subject of the drafting of yeshivah students. It was in his soul. He suffered greatly these past few months over this, even more than his physical pain.”

“He asked all the time, ‘What will be with the yeshivah students and with the Torah world?’ Therefore, please, it is necessary that this decree be rescinded. Rescind the decree,” Harav Dovid Yosef implored Netanyahu.

According to media reports, Netanyahu answered, “We are searching for a way to preserve the world of Torah.”

Crowds were such that police sealed off the street to traffic on both ends.

People stood in line for a chance to say a brief word to the Rav’s four surviving sons in the huge tent which was erected at the entrance to the building, while inside the house many women came to visit his six daughters.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the October 9th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.