Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef יצחק יוסף |
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Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel | |
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Rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Hazon Ovadia Talmudic scholar and recognized halakhic authority |
Personal details | |
Born | Jerusalem, Israel |
Nationality | Israeli |
Parents | Ovadia Yosef, Margalit Fattal |
Yitzhak Yosef (Hebrew: יצחק יוסף), born January 16, 1952, is the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, also known as the Rishon LeZion, the rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Hazon Ovadia, and the author of a popular set of books on Jewish law called Yalkut Yosef. Rabbi Yosef is the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, and bases his rulings on Jewish law on his father's methods of ruling. His books are considered foundational among large sectors of Sephardic Jews in Israel and the world. For these books, he has won the Rabbi Toledano Prize from the Tel Aviv Religious Council, as well as the Rav Kook Prize.
Yosef was born in 1952, the sixth son of the future Shas' spiritual leader and Israeli Chief Rabbi, Ovadia Yosef. He went to school at Talmud Torah Yavneh in the Independent Education System. At age 12, he began his studies at the junior yeshiva of Porat Yosef in Katamon, Jerusalem. After that, he studied at Yeshivat HaNegev in Netivot, and from there, at Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem.
In 1971, when he was 18 and studying at Yeshivat HaNegev, he collected halakhic rulings from the five volumes of Yavia Omer, the book of his father's responsa, that had been published by then, and published them in the book Yalkut Yosef. The book was published with his father's support and supervision. It is often considered one of his father's books because it is a summary of his father's rulings, since he went over it section by section and added his comments.