The moment Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was shot.....

Tonight, the 12th of Mar Cheshvan,  marks exactly 18 years since the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin on November 4, 1995.

The video below displays the dramatic moments in which the news of Rabin's murder spread, by first being reported to Rav Ovadia Yosef while he delivered his weekly Motzei Shabbos Shiur at the Yazdim Beit Knesset in Jerusalem. Rav Ovadia receives the news in amazement and spontaneously reacts with deep sorrow.

"We heard a very difficult thing, due to our many sins" he interrupts the Shiur and announces in shock. "The prime Minster was assassinated and shot three times." The crowd gasps and reacts in bewilderment. "They say that he is injured" continues Rav Ovadia, "therefor we will now make a Mi Sheberach for him." After concluding the Mi Shebeirach he added" "in our many sins there is baseless hatred... The Torah unifies all Jews."

חשיפת הבית של הרב עובדיה יוסף - מפוצץ ספרים ותמונתו

We Love You, Maran!

הרב עובדיה ביום הכתרתו לרב הספרדי הראשי של תל אביב - ארכיון המדינה

YWN: Sanz Klausenberg Rebbi Shlita at Maran Ovadia Yosef

The Sanz-Klausenberg Rebbe USA Shlita is visiting in Eretz Yisrael. The rebbe on Monday evening 13 Elul 5773 visited Har Nof to pay a visit to Maran HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef Shlita.

The rebbe was greeted with warmth by the Gadol Hador. The two spent a few minutes exchanging divrei Torah. The rebbe told R’ Ovadia that his father the Bal HaShefa Chaim ZT”L gave a shiur in which he expressed his profound pain on the machlokes that exists between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, adding the late rebbe said “Avraham Avinu was from Aram Naharayim – he was Sephardi”.

Rav Ovadia gave the rebbe a copy of his soon-to-be-released new sefer Chazon Ovadia on Halachos pertaining to trumos and maasros. The rebbe added that he feels himself a talmid of the rav, learning from his seforim daily.

Rav Ovadiah with a grandson (or maybe great-grandson) on Purim...

President Shimon Peres visiting the sukkah of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Tuesday

President Shimon Peres described Iran’s president as “a modern-day Haman,” during a meeting with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef on Tuesday.

Despite comparing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the ancient Persian official who sought to eradicate all the Jews in the empire in the fifth century BCE, Peres said that “we would be happy to be rid of him through non-military means.”

Peres’s comments came during a holiday visit to Yosef’s sukkah. The meeting was part of the president’s yearly visits to the sukkot of Israel’s current and past chief rabbis.

In an early September meeting with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, Peres compared Ahmadinejad to another enemy of the Jews saying that “not since Hitler has there been a leader like Ahmadinejad, who openly calls for the annihilation of a people.”

Last week, while decorating the sukkah at the President’s Residence, Peres blasted Ahmadinejad’s speech at the UN, in which the Iranian leader claimed that the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is only 60-70 years old.

Peres said that the speech was proof of the Iranian leader’s “profound historical ignorance” and that Ahmadinejad needs to be taught a history lesson about the ancient Persian king Koresh, who “more than 2,500 years ago allowed the Jews … to return to Israel and rebuild their home.”

Rav Ovadia Yosef: We Must Pray for the Destruction of Iran

With the approach of Rosh Hashana, Rav Ovadia Yosef said on Saturday night that when we eat the traditional holiday symbolic foods, whose names or shapes have a symbolic connection to our supplications to Hashem, especially when we make the blessing over the dates, t’marim, and pray that our enemies be obliterated, we should focus specifically on Iran, the wicked nation which is threatening the State of Israel. “May the good Lord obliterate them, destroy them…”

Tractate Kritut in the Babylonian Talmud teaches that we should eat on Rosh Hashanah, among other fruits, a date – “tamar” – which contains the syllable “tam” or ended, and after eating a portion of it we should say, “May it be Your will, our God and the God of our fathers, that all our enemies and haters and all who plots against us be terminated.”

Also, when we eat a leek (“kreti”) we should appeal to God that our enemies and haters along with anyone who plots against us be destroyed, the Rav clarified that we should focus on the Hizbullah and Iran.

“May God destroy them and wipe them off the face of the earth,” said the Rav and quoted many sources in Psalms referring to the Almighty’s salvation in the face of enemy threats.

“They go by chariot and on horseback and we will go in the name of Our God. They bowed and fell, and we got up and persevered.”

During discussions throughout the previous week, Rav Ovadia referred to the Iranian threat, saying, “There are evil people, the Iranians, waiting to destroy us . . . .we must pour out our hearts in prayer to the Holy One, blessed be His Name. . . .We are in danger, we are all in danger. . . .We have no one to rely upon, except our Father in Heaven. We must pray from the heart with deep concentration.”

The Haredi website Kikar HaShabbat last week reported that General (Res.) Yaakov Amidror, Chief Advisor for National Security, came to Rav Ovadia’s house and briefed him with information of Iran’s nuclear plan.

Shas leader prays for God to thwart Iranian plans for death and destruction in IsraelDays after receiving briefing on nuclear threat from Netanyahu adviser, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef compares Iranian regime to biblical Haman, who sought to wipe out the Jews of Persia

The spiritual leader of the Shas ultra-Orthodox party, a key faction in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, said in a sermon that the Iranian nuclear threat could result in death and destruction for the Jewish state, and appealed to God to thwart the Islamic regime’s plans.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef made the remarks in a sermon on Sunday, days after he was briefed on the Iranian threat by Netanyahu’s National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror.

“Heaven forbid, they [the Iranians] could bring upon us death and destruction. May God thwart their plans,” the rabbi said.

Amidror was dispatched by Netanyahu to visit Yosef in order to win over the 92-year-old rabbi’s support — and thus the votes of Shas ministers in the government — for a possible Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, the Kikar Shabbat Hebrew news site reported.

The report quoted Yosef as saying in his sermon, “We beg of Him [God] not to allow those evil people’s plot [to come to fruition]… to thwart their plan and ruin their thoughts, and do to them as they plan to do to us.

He reportedly likened the Iranian regime to Haman — the royal adviser in ancient Persia who, in the Old Testament Book of Esther, died at the gallows after planning to slaughter the Jews of Persia. Yosef prayed that God bring light unto the Jewish people.

Yosef called upon Jews to say slichot — prayers traditionally recited in the month leading up to Yom Kippur, the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar.

Amidror was accompanied to Yosef’s home by Interior Minister and Shas political head Eli Yishai, a senior member of cabinet who has been said, in some reports, to oppose an Israeli strike on Iran.

Iran claims its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel believes that the program is military in nature and Netanyahu reportedly fears that Iran will soon cross a threshold after which it will be nearly impossible to stop the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons.

Chacham Ovadiah to Obama: Release Pollard, It’s Pikuach Nefesh

Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai delivered a message from Chacham Ovadia Yosef to US ambassador James Cunningham today, urging him to persuade President Barack Obama to commute the life sentence of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard.

Rav Ovadiah wrote the president that Pollard’s case was one of pikuach nefesh(saving a life) and that he should release him as a “humanitarian gesture.”

Yishai delivered the message at a party at Cunningham’s residence held in honor of US Independence Day. While some MKs boycotted the event to protest Pollard not being allowed to attend his father’s funeral, there were no provocations on Pollard’s behalf from anyone who did attend.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at the US Independence day event in Herzliya, thanking the United States for its “diplomatic, moral and military support” of Israel over the years.

Netanyahu praised Obama for his continued insistence that negotiations are the only way to bring about peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The event was attended by 2,200 guests, including MKs, military figures, local and international senior academics, Cunningham and President Shimon Peres.

Peres said that “America is the most “indispensable” nation for Israel. He also thanked Obama for “his ongoing commitment to the peace and security of our land.”

The president and the prime minister both thanked Cunningham for his service as US ambassador to Israel.

“I will be leaving my position soon after three years,” said Cunningham. “You have welcomed us, we thank you,” he added.

Cunningham spoke of the strong bond between the US and Israel, saying Americans “have a clear understanding of Israel’s security needs.”

The ambassador said that Obama “has made clear that he stands beside Israel and will continue to do so in these challenging times.”

Cunningham said that the status quo in the Middle East is unsustainable and renewed negotiations were needed to secure peace in the region. He added, however, that “no country can be expected to make peace with a terrorist organization that calls for its destruction.”

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Closeup and Personal Recently A 4 minute film was shot showing the closeup and personal life of Reb Ovadia Yose

הרב עובדיה יוסף - אליך מרן - הקליפ הרשמי

Lyrics:

אמור לי נא אח, איך נזכה אנו
אמור לי נא איך, לגדול כמורינו

ניצול הזמן, אור לעיני מורינו
חיים של תורה, חיי גדול דורינו
נילך בדרכיו, ה' יאיר עינינו
ללמוד תורתו, תורת משה רבינו

אליך מרן, עיני כולם נישאים
דברי תורתך, בליבותם נכנסים
מהם העולם, יונקים וניזונים
דברי תורה, דברי אלוקים חיים

אחי, נמעט בהבלי העולם
זאת לנו מורה, נשיא התורה
אחי, מה נאה עמל התורה
ולואי ונזכה, לחיות לאורה

אליך מרן, עיני כולם נישאים
דברי תורתך, בליבותם נכנסים
מהם העולם, יונקים וניזונים
דברי תורה, דברי אלוקים חיים

ניצול הזמן, אור לעיני מורינו
חיים של תורה, חיי גדול דורינו
נילך בדרכיו, ה' יאיר עינינו
ללמוד תורתו, תורת משה רבינו