Ben Zion Abba Shaul

Ben Zion Abba Shaul (; 31 July 1924 – 13 July 1998; on the Hebrew calendar: 29 Tammuz 5684 – 19 Tammuz 5758) (first name also spelled Ben Sion) was one of the leading Sephardic rabbis, Torah scholars and halakhic arbiters of his day, and the rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem for the last 15 years of his life. He was responsible for a religious revival among Sephardic Jews with his founding of Ma'ayan HaChinuch HaTorani, a network of Torah schools for Sephardic children in Israel, and was widely known for his ability to give blessings that were fulfilled.

Early life Ben Zion Abba Shaul was born in Jerusalem to Eliyahu and Benaya Abba Shaul, immigrants from Iran. A shoemaker by trade, Eliyahu was also a Torah scholar and kabbalist; he was Ben Zion's first teacher. Eliyahu served as gabbai (caretaker and fundraiser) for the Ohel Rachel synagogue in the Bukharim Quarter of Jerusalem for 50 years. In his old age, his son Ben Zion became the rabbi of the synagogue and another son, Yaakov, became the hazzan.

Abba Shaul was the eldest boy in a family of sixteen children. Despite their poverty, his parents were committed to raising a family of Torah scholars, even as many other families from Oriental and Sephardi backgrounds were lured into sending their children to Zionist schools. The family kept many halakhic stringencies, including grinding and baking their own matzot before Passover and avoiding all processed foods — even sugar — during the holiday itself. Abba Shaul continued to keep these stringencies even after he established his own family.

At the age of 11, Abba Shaul entered Porat Yosef, the pre-eminent Sephardic yeshiva in Jerusalem. His first teacher was Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka (who was only 21 at the time) and his classmates included the future Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. Later, Abba Shaul advanced to the highest shiur, taught by the rosh yeshiva, Rabbi Ezra Attiya, with whom he developed a close bond. Abba Shaul abided by his rosh yeshiva's opinions on all matters and displayed the same approach to learning and to issuing halakhic directives as his mentor. In time, Attiya asked him to serve as rosh yeshiva, but he refused to accept that position as long as his first teacher, Tzadka, was still alive. He did agree to serve as a lecturer at the yeshiva. R' Eliyahu died on Monday morning, 9 May, 2022, at the age of seventy.