Rav Chaim Sinwani of Yehud

Early years

Rav Chaim Sinwani zt"l, the son of Rav Yichya Sinwani, was born on Yom Kippur in 1897 in the town of Sinwan, near the city of Taaz in Yemen. He learned with his father, and then in the town of Jabel Zabar.

At the age of seventeen he received semichah (rabbinical ordination) from Rav Shlomo ben Yosef Tabib, with whom he also learned Kabbalah. At eighteen he married. Soon afterward his teachers offered him the position of dayan (judge), but he declined.

Torah and leadership

After his teachers passed away, he was asked to serve as rabbi of Sinwan and its surroundings, and this time he accepted. As rabbi of the Sharab district, he traveled among the towns and villages to teach, and to supervise the dayanim and shochtim. He also composed poems and seforim.

An injury later made it impossible for him to travel among the communities of the district, and he moved to Aden. There the rabbanim of the city, Rav Salem Yaakov Menachem and Rav Yahya Abraham, appointed him to the beis din. While in Aden he underwent surgery for a fracture.

Later years and passing

Rav Chaim moved to Eretz Yisroel in 1949 and refused to take a rabbinic post. He settled in Yehud, where he became well known as a worker of yeshuos, and he taught students in his home.

It is related that he felt the State of Israel was weighed down by the sorrow of the Shechinah, and that for this reason he would not visit Yerushalayim. He also forbade taking part in the elections, and a leaflet published after his passing records his opposition to voting, even in local elections. His family, however, relate that he viewed the State favorably and marked Independence Day every year, including by saying Hallel. They also say that he held great respect for Rav Kook and Rav Shlomo Goren.

After the Yom Kippur War, he asked for the names of the fallen, davened for each one, and wept, asking what we would receive for them. In one of his poems he praises the end of the exile and the aliyah to Eretz Yisroel, and he even foresees that the day of redemption is drawing near.

Rav Chaim passed away on 27 Adar 5739 (1979) and was buried in the Jewish cemetery. His matzeivah reads, "Israel's defense attorney."