The Lot in Bayt Saleh

After the death of Rav Shlomo Saleh, the heads of the community gathered in the Bayt Saleh synagogue, then the seat of learning and halachic decision in Sana'a, to choose a new leader. They agreed to cast lots. The names of the candidates were written on slips of paper and put into the Aron Kodesh with the Sifrei Torah, and the doors were closed. The eldest of the rabbanim, Rav Chayim ben Yosef Korach, then eighty years old, was to draw the slip.

Rav Chayim began to recite a Psalm that contains the words "You maintain my lot" (Tehillim 16), and the whole congregation recited it with him on their feet, in perfect unison. Hope showed on every face. When the Psalm ended, a great silence fell. Rav Chayim put his hand into the Aron and, with a trembling hand, drew out one slip. He called out, "Hashem's chosen is Mori Yihya Yitzchak Halevi."

Some murmured that there might have been a mistake, so the lot was drawn again, and a third time, and each time the same name came up. Then a murmur went through the people: "This thing has come from Hashem." When Rav Yihya Yitzchak understood that he had been chosen to head the court, he hid his face in his mantle and would not show himself. He protested forcefully before the assembly and then fled from them. The men hurried after him to his house, but neither their pleas nor their flattery moved him, and he would not return to take up the post. The assembly was not willing to cast lots a fourth time.