Chacham Yaakov Shaul Elyashar
The Rishon LeTzion, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisroel from 1893, who answered thousands of questions from Jews around the world.
Biography
Early years
Rav Yaakov Shaul Elyashar zt"l, later the Rishon LeTzion (Sephardic Chief Rabbi) of Eretz Yisroel, was born in Tzfas to a prominent Sephardic rabbinic family that had lived in Eretz Yisroel for centuries. His father, Rav Elazar Yerucham Elyashar, was a shochet.
In 1824, when Yaakov Shaul was seven, his father passed away and the family fell into poverty. His mother sold her home and belongings and supported her only son by working as a seamstress. They moved to Yerushalayim, and in 1828 she married Rav Binyamin Mordechai Navon, who adopted the boy and became his teacher and mentor.
By the time of his bar mitzvah he was already regarded as a Torah prodigy. In 1832, at the age of fifteen, he married an orphaned girl. They had four children, three of whom were born while the couple still lived in his stepfather's home.
Torah and leadership
In 1853 Rav Yaakov Shaul was appointed a dayan (judge) in Yerushalayim and sent as the emissary of the Sephardic community to Alexandria. The Jewish community there had decided to stop receiving emissaries from Eretz Yisroel, and he persuaded them to cancel that decision. They invited him to become their rabbi, but he declined. In 1855 he became associate head of the Yerushalayim beis din, and in 1869 its head.
In 1893, after the passing of the Rishon LeTzion Rav Raphael Meir Panigel, Rav Yaakov Shaul took his place. He held the position for the next thirteen years, until his own passing. At that time Rav Shmuel Salant was the chief rabbi of the Ashkenazic community, and the two enjoyed warm relations and worked together on matters that affected all the Jews of Eretz Yisroel.
Teachings and seforim
Rav Yaakov Shaul wrote thousands of teshuvos in reply to questions from Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Temanim around the world. Most of them were published in his responsa collection, Maase Ish. He is also known as Yisa Berachah, the name of another of his seforim.
Later years and passing
Rav Yaakov Shaul passed away on 28 Tammuz 5666 (1906), two days after the events of the telegram told below, in Yerushalayim.
Legacy
The Yerushalayim neighborhood of Givat Shaul is named for him. One of his great-grandchildren was the Israeli politician and writer Eliyahu Elyashar.
Stories
The Telegram from Novominsk
It is told that one day Rav Yaakov Shaul received a telegram from Warsaw, dated 13 July 1906. The sender wrote that he was a rabbi in Novominsk, writing on behalf of his whole congregation. A few months earlier, he said, a government official named Nacziolink had been murdered. Two brothers, Eliezer and Noach Horowitz, together with a woman named Motol, had falsely testified against five non-Jews. These gentiles were innocent, but out of hatred for them the Jews had fabricated testimony, and now all five were condemned to death.
The telegram went on to say that the three witnesses had fled and were now in Yerushalayim, in the home of Yitzchok Freidman of Mezritsh. The rabbi asked Rav Yaakov Shaul to find them and get them to admit that their testimony was false and born of hatred. This, he wrote, would save the innocent men from execution and would spare the Jews of Novominsk from hatred, threats and pogroms. He asked Rav Yaakov Shaul to contact the Russian consul in Yerushalayim, who would know how to send a telegram to Warsaw, and he signed it Rabbi Rabinowitz, Novominsk, Warsaw.
The Rishon LeTzion was very surprised. He asked his secretary, Rav Chaim Michel Michelin, to try to locate the people named. When they were found, they insisted that their testimony was true and that the accused had in fact murdered the official.
Rav Yaakov Shaul called an urgent meeting of rabbanim and communal leaders. While they discussed the matter, he sat silently. At the end he rose and said that in his opinion the telegram was a setup and a trap. "Perhaps the entire telegram is a forgery. Either the rabbi who signed does not know what he signed, or his name has been forged, or he was forced under threat to sign against his will. If we answer in any way, it can lead to violence and pogroms against the Jews there. I see two choices. Either we ignore it completely, or we politely reply that as Chacham Bashi under Turkish rule and law, I am in no position to interfere in the affairs of a foreign country."
Not everyone agreed, and some disagreed. Rav Yaakov Shaul suggested asking the opinion of the revered chief Ashkenazic rav, Rav Shmuel Salant. A delegation set out late at night to find him. They told him of the disagreement but did not reveal the Rishon LeTzion's view, so as not to influence him. They stressed that they were certain the telegram was fabricated, and that either the rabbi of Novominsk knew nothing of it or his name had been forged.
Rav Salant answered that they should either ignore it or reply that the Chacham Bashi, under Turkish rule and law, was forbidden to interfere in the foreign affairs of another country. When this reached the meeting in the home of the Rishon LeTzion, everyone was astounded that the two sages, without conferring, had spoken like two prophets prophesying the same words.
They sent their reply by telegram exactly as both had advised, stating that they were forbidden to interfere with another nation's sovereignty in matters of foreign affairs. Some weeks later the Jewish newspapers HaZman and HaTzefira praised the wise sages of Yerushalayim for avoiding disaster by ignoring forged telegrams sent by enemies to ensnare the Jewish people. Had the rabbanim of Yerushalayim fallen into the trap, who knows where it would have ended?
Seforim
- Maase Ish: His responsa collection, containing most of the thousands of teshuvos he wrote to Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Temanim around the world.
- Yisa Berachah: A sefer of his, from which he is also known by the same name.
Family & talmidim
Teachers: Rav Binyamin Mordechai Navon (his stepfather)
Children: Four children