A Torah Scholar in Distress: The Final Days of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef

A brown armchair. That's what you'll find at the entrance to the room of Rabbi Moshe Klein, the Rabbi of the 'Hadassah' medical centers in Jerusalem.

"Do you know what this chair standing here is?" Rabbi Klein tells me with an air of excitement. "It holds a significant meaning. This is the armchair in which Rabbi Ovadia, of blessed memory, used to sit in the hospital and delve into the Torah. It was its exclusive purpose. After his passing, the hospital did not want to repurpose the chair and brought it here."

A year and a half since the lights were extinguished and the Divine presence departed from us. The pain and shock still torment our souls. At the 'Hadassah' medical centers, where Maran was like family in his twilight days, the memory still lives as if it happened today. For the first time, he opens his heart and shares with us Rabbi Ovadia's conduct in the difficult moments of illness he witnessed.

Nostalgia on the 8th Floor

"Every time I go up to the room in the ICU on the 8th floor, where Rabbi Ovadia, of blessed memory, passed away, I still gently push the door, maybe, just maybe I'll find him in the room," says Rabbi Klein.

"There were moments you saw he was in pain all over his body. Really biting his lips and crying out in pain. And then you saw how the body was indeed tormented and weak, but the spirit was strong and steadfast, with all that implies.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef

"I can testify, during the period when his pain was bearable, there was not a moment he was away from his studies. Sometimes you'd enter the room and feel as if he was unaware of you. He was simply connected to the Gemara. He didn't see what was happening - neither to his right nor to his left. Even if there was noise in the room."

You could say Rabbi Ovadia was connected to the words of Rabbi Aba and Rabbi Zeira like to an IV.

"The truth is, it's a bit more than an IV," corrects Rabbi Klein. "An IV can be torn and become 'invalid'. Here, it was a situation where Rabbi Ovadia was connected with an unbreakable bond. He sat on the chair that's here and sat and studied, and studied and studied - incessantly.

"Even during the period when his body was weak and the pain frequently attacked, he held the Gemara up to the top right and did not stop studying even while lying down. Every time I entered the room, he would say to me, 'Rabbi Moshe, pray for me. 'If not for Your Torah being my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.' With all the pain, only the Torah sustains me.' He would say that, and I would tremble."

"I remember once Rabbi Ovadia said about one of Israel's greats that he was a 'piece of Torah.' I looked at Rabbi Ovadia studying in the hospital, and I said to myself: here, too, is a 'piece of Torah!'"

"I won't forget the day after the last Fast of Gedaliah of his life. The Rabbi thanked me very much for what I did for him on Rosh Hashanah. We vacated doctors' rooms and meeting halls and turned them into an improvised synagogue. Before the shofar blowing, by the way, he delivered a long Torah lecture, about an hour long. He felt a great sense of gratitude for the extraordinary hospitality, and after Rosh Hashanah, he hugged and kissed me and even gave me a kiss on the back of my hand before I managed to kiss the back of his. I left his room and burst into tears."

The Rabbi's voice chokes occasionally. It seems speaking is difficult for him. The intense longing attacks him at times and does not give him rest.

"Tell the doctors to release me"

"I saw with my own eyes. On the eve of his last Rosh Hashanah, wrapped in pain, he did not want to remain in the hospital. 'Tell the doctors to release me so there will be great joy for the people of Israel,' he asked, almost pleaded. He was, of course, unfit for this. His illness still cast a shadow over him. But what occupied his heart and soul was not himself and his bitter feelings, but the feeling of the people of Israel. That the people of Israel should celebrate the holiday with joy and happiness."

Despite this, after Rabbi Ovadia understood that for his health, he would have to remain within the confines of the hospital, he acted so that life would continue in their regular form and that the holiday joy would not be marred by his illness. "At that moment, Rabbi Ovadia commanded all his close ones to return to their homes and prepare for the holiday as usual, not to miss a thing from the holiday signs. He also commanded the cantor of his Beit Midrash, the illustrious cantor Rabbi Moshe Habusha, that he should conduct the prayers in his Beit Midrash as usual each and every year."

If we spoke about the eve of his last Rosh Hashanah, I will tell another point in this context: 'I ask you, call Bennett for me on the phone,' he urgently requested on the eve of the Day of Judgment. 'We are before Rosh Hashanah, and perhaps now he will have thoughts of repentance about the draft decree. I want to tell him a few things.' This is what occupied Rabbi Ovadia in moments of bitter illness and a few hours before Rosh Hashanah."

'Thank you very much' - for every needle

Did you hear words and feelings from the 'Hadassah' doctors wearing kippot who treated Rabbi Ovadia?

"I tell you: the 'Hadassah' doctors, most of whom wear kippot and the rest are righteous and meticulous scholars, show true self-sacrifice to save any patient, be whoever he may be, and heal him. They are always praiseworthy for this. However, surely they had a dialogue with Rabbi Ovadia. They were always impressed by his nobility, his wisdom, his insight, and the smile that was often on his face. Sometimes he would smile. They received many affectionate pats from him. They knew full well that such a great person stood before them from the age of generations.

"The doctors treated him with great skill - but also with endless respect. With a feeling of the heavy responsibility they had before a leader in Israel. That it was something entirely different.

"At the end of the orthopedic surgery performed on Rabbi Ovadia, a few months before his passing, a nurse from the former Soviet Union came out to me, filled with excitement: 'A man like this,' he said, 'I have never seen in my life. See,' he explained. 'We prepared the Rabbi for surgery; attached more tubes and more IVs. Every person, by nature, would be uncomfortable in such a situation. But here, not at all. For every needle and every puncture, he warmly responded: "Thank you very much, thank you very much. May you be blessed from above." That was without recognizing the depth of Rabbi Ovadia's Torah. Just his human, normative, simple behavior. He recognized deep gratitude to every person who did him good."

The Torah Dedication Cancelled

"If the article writers," he adds, "knew how much pain surrounded Rabbi Ovadia and how he really groaned in his suffering, and on the other hand how much effort he invested in studying during those days, even the highest metaphors would not succeed in touching the actual reality. It was really like a Torah scroll in distress. It's hard to describe it."

You surely had dilemmas regarding medical and halachic matters in the hospital, where you heard his opinion?

"Surely there were dilemmas. Countless questions in issues like Shabbat, the impurity of deceased, determination of the moment of death, nurses traveling on Shabbat and returning home, and many more, reached his door during his hospital stay. Even about himself, by the way, the question arose whether to return him home on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, as he wished. You probably know that there wasn't a need for a bookshelf to get his answer. The bookshelf walked with him.

"For the honor of Rabbi Ovadia, I won't cite them fully, but as mentioned, there were many questions morning and evening. Although I can't raise them in a public framework. I know that decisions said in a certain situation aren't suitable for another. It's not certain that his decision would be the same also in this one. Each case and its decisive considerations.

"On the day he passed away, there was supposed to be a Torah dedication event in the hospital, and, of course, we canceled the celebration. We accompanied a Torah scroll to rest instead of bringing in a Torah scroll to our abode."

News: Technological Solution for 'Cohen Impurity'

In the eyes of the Rabbi of the 'Hadassah' medical centers, the fact that Rabbi Ovadia chose to recover from his illness in the mythological medical center proves its strategic position in the world of medicine.

"We recently bring revolutionary news to the ultra-Orthodox patients," says Rabbi Klein with satisfaction. "Since I entered my role about three years ago, I have ensured, thank Hashem, that the ultra-Orthodox patient receives the best Torah guidance - besides the medical."

What does that mean in practice?

"We strive to adhere to all methods - including the strictest. For this reason, we prefer not to bring goods from 'heter mechira' to the hospital for those who request it. All the meals are under Badatz supervision. On Shabbats, there are organized meals for the guests. The observant Jew can feel at home here."

At the same time, Rabbi Klein relates that he has dramatic news about the question of 'Cohen impurity' that occupies every average hospital. "We are working on developing a technology that is unparalleled anywhere in the country, to solve the issue of 'Cohen impurity'. If until now, a junior employee was dispatched to stick a note at the entrance to the hospital warning of deceased, which sometimes causes a delay in notification, now, no more. We've developed a technological device that immediately warns of the presence of a deceased in the hospital. This happens in full synchronization immediately with the death notification issued by the doctor in the hospital computers."

Rabbi Klein once defined to halachic figures the role of a hospital Rabbi: what is the 'lechatkhila' within the 'bediavad', and he thinks it's a task that's not simple at all. "It's a task and also a wisdom," he explains. "A lot of skill and a lot of common sense are required here. I'll illustrate: recently, the question of activating electronic devices on Shabbat came up. These are complex devices that generate short-term materials. They are permitted on Shabbat due to Pikuach Nefesh, but the question is how to operate them. We could have exempted ourselves on the assumption that everything is Pikuach Nefesh, but we did not rush to resolve the complex question. We sat with the scientists and doctors to understand the process and the medical issues and understand where there is human contact in the process. After all this, we presented the question to prominent Torah scholars. As a rule, in 'Hadassah', the approach is to provide halachic technological solutions that meet the criteria accepted by leading rabbis from all communities and sectors. From this spirit, Shabbat-friendly keyboards were brought in according to the guidelines of the great Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, of blessed memory, and traffic light doors were installed where the doors must always be closed."

"We encounter halachic questions at every step," admits Rabbi Klein. "So, for example, whether to intubate children through a 'tube' that we cannot disconnect from now on, and so on."

But it doesn't end here. "We need to reach a state of understanding the needs of the observant Jew in human functioning. To understand, for example, that a woman who wants to improve her conditions and stay in a 'hotel' offered by the hospital, must be treated with full caution regarding 'muktze' and get into all the details.

"In other words: if in the past a person had to choose between a place of divine inspiration and a place of medical inspiration, today you can find a place like 'Hadassah' that on one hand brings peak medicine and on the other brings a halachic solution optimally."

The Eruv surrounding 'Hadassah Mount Scopus' is under the supervision of 'the Eda Haredis' and 'Hadassah Ein Kerem' of the Jerusalem Rabbinate. But that's not all. "In addition to the Eruv of Jerusalem made by the local rabbinate, at 'Hadassah', we were stringent on ourselves in both campuses and installed an adorned Eruv of the hospital. So the person knows he can be at ease on Shabbat and carry within the campus."

Rabbi Klein consults with poskim from the entire spectrum of the ultra-Orthodox community. He goes in and out of the house of our teacher, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, may he live long. He also consults with the illustrious Rabbi Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss, may he live long, head of the 'Eda Haredit'; the great Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, may he live long, and with other halachic authorities.

The email of Avraham Yisrael Friedman: abyisrael@gmail.com