CHACHAM SHALOM COHEN, Zt”l –A Talmid Remembers His Rebbi and Guide

RABBI BINYOMIN ZEV KARMAN

Rabbi Moshe Mustacchi’s journey through life has been unusual. As the son of a noted hazzan in the Sephardic community in Brooklyn, he began his education in Magen David Yeshiva, the flagship institution of the Syrian community. When he decided to learn in Yeshiva Porat Yosef after his graduation, it was a distinct change in the trajectory of what his family had expected.

“My parents do not have a yeshivah background, so going to Porat Yosef was a cultural change for them,” Rabbi Mustacchi said. “They did not quite grasp that the yeshivah was at the pinnacle of Sephardic yeshivot, and they had little idea of the esteem in which Chacham Shalom was held in the Sephardic Torah world.

“When they first met with Chacham Shalom, their main concern was for my health and well-being, as it should be for parents. They worried about my food, complaining that the avocado meals were insufficient. To assuage their unease, Chacham Shalom left instructions with the cook that I was to receive extra bourekas by meals. When I entered Porat Yosef, he took me under his wing, and was my guide and mentor ever since.”

Rabbi Mustacchi explained that it was not easy to enter Chacham Shalom’s inner circle. “He was very demanding of his talmidim , and he had high expectations. He was not a ‘teddy bear’ but more like a hungry lion. He insisted that you do your best and work hard. But once you showed him you were living up to your obligations, he took responsibility for you and was available for whatever you needed.

“When I first came to Porat Yosef, they asked me to be the hazzan for Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday night. This was most unusual, because I was entering shiur alef , and usually they only allowed those in shiur bet , which Chacham Shalom delivered, to serve as the hazzan . I was unsure how he would take to it, but a few days later he spoke to me and reassured me. He said, ‘I see that your tefillah was different. It was organized, and was done without screaming or switching all over the place.’ This was my first interaction with him, and that allowed me to develop a kesher with him.”

Although Chacham Shalom appre - ciated Rabbi Mustacchi’s hazzanut , he let him, as well as all his talmidim, know that this was not to be the focus of his life. “He always drilled into us that we have to concentrate on our learning. His example was that learning Torah is the suit, and all these other talents that we had were just the gold buttons, which can enhance the suit. A person can be a hazzan , a sofer , he can volunteer for Hatzalah, and all these things can be good to do. Yet anything that will take a person away from his shtender is a distraction and must be avoided. Only if a person can remain tied to his shtender can he pursue these other things and they can then enhance his avodat Hashem

“If a talmid got married and eventually went out to work, a conversation with him would inevitably be, ‘It’s nice to hear that you are successful. But where are you holding in your learning? Are you maximizing the time set aside for Torah? Let’s discuss what you are learning now. You are learning basar b’halav ? Good, let’s talk about it.’ He would then talk to the talmid about the halachot , and show not only his prowess in all areas of Torah, but drive home the lesson that this must remain the most important part of his life. Just because you are working does not exempt you from being a ben Torah. ”

In order to train his talmidim in this manner, Chacham Shalom showed them, through his own daily schedule, what it meant to concentrate on learning Torah.

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Shiur was seven days a week, and nothing at all could hold him back from preparing and performing at his best. By doing so, he showed what a person is capable of and what a talmid is obligated to do. He would absolutely not tolerate any shortcuts,” Rabbi Mustacchi recalls. “He expected you to come into shiur well-prepared, knowing the Gemara , Rashi and Tosafot clearly. He expected you to be awake and not tired, because if you were sleepy, or showed up without a gemara (even if the shiur was to be on a Rishon or Acharon ), it showed a lack of kabod for the shiur If you were unprepared and asked a question that showed that you did not utilize the time during hachanah seder to get ready properly, Hashem yerahem . He would say, ‘You are not taking this seriously, this lacks kabod .’

“He also did not like to say halbe zachen as they say in the yeshivishe vernacular. If he wanted to stress a yesod from a Rishon , an Acharon or even from a later sefer like the Kehilat Yaakov (by the Steipler, zt”l ), he would say over, and even read inside, the entire piece. ‘If the Steipler wrote the entire piece, it lacks kabod to copy a page and only say two or three lines in the middle,’ he would tell us. Chacham Shalom would read it all, and show us what kabod haTorah meant.”

There was a system in the way Chacham Shalom presented his shiur , and it was geared to train his talmidim to learn properly. Rabbi Mustacchi described a typical week of shiurim that Chacham Shalom delivered.

“The first day he began a sugya , he would go through the Gemara , Rashi and Tosafot of the sugya . This would include the main meforshim including those in the back of the Gemara , like the Maharshal , Maharsha , Maharam and the like. This would give us a firm foundation of the sugya . The next day, he would delve into the Rishonim and the main Acharonim , like the Rashba and Ritva, and Pnei Yehoshua and

Harav Akiva Eiger The next shiurim would contain the yeshivishe Torah He would say the Birkat Shmuel of Rav Baruch Ber (Lebowitz), Kovetz Shiurim of Rav Elchanan (Wasserman) and the Steipler.

“When we learned Ezehu Neshech , the perek that deals with the prohibition of charging interest on loans, he would tell us to bring in a Shulchan Aruch , and he would go through the Mechaber, the Rama and the Poskim He would show us that this shitah conforms with the Rosh, and the other one goes with the Ritva. When someone asked him why he was not teaching us how to pasken , he answered, ‘I am!’ He stressed that in order to know halachah and how to pasken , you must know everything from the ground up, without taking any shortcuts. He would often say, ‘If the Yalkut Yosef (a sefer on halachah compiled by Chacham Yitzchak Yosef) would only have learned Yalkut Yosef , it would be heres (a worthless shard of pottery), there would be no sefer . You must first learn everything thoroughly, and then you can see what others say about it.”

On Friday, Chacham Shalom delivered a (mandatory) shiur on the 39 melachot of Shabbat, using the text of the Minchat Chinuch in Mosach HaShabbat ( Mitzvah 32) as a starting point. On Shabbat, he said another (mandatory) shiur in Mishnah Berurah , in which he taught not just the halachot , but made sure they knew the yesodot and showed the talmidim how to arrive at the proper psak

In addition, Dayanim from all sectors would often consult with him and seek his opinion about various issues they were facing. “It was interesting to see men from the Dati Leumi come to discuss their cases with Chacham Shalom,” Rabbi Mustacchi recalls. “They came very well prepared, and he appreciated that very much. They came to hear what the Torah said, and it made no difference to him what their background was.”

Although Chacham Shalom was one of the heads of Shas during the lifetime of Chacham Ovadia Yosef, zt”l, and became the leader of the movement shortly after the passing of Chacham Ovadia, he never mixed his position in the political party with his position as Rosh Yeshivah of Porat Yosef. “We never heard him speak about politics while in the yeshivah,” Rabbi Mustacchi said. “Similarly, you never heard him mention Porat Yosef when he was speaking at Shas gatherings. Truthfully, it may have been beneficial if he would have thrown in something about the yeshivah at the rallies, perhaps financially or as a way of attracting talmidim . Yet he kept a strict separation between the two. The yeshivah was dedicated to keeping the talmidim at their shtenders , and anything political would be a distraction.

“I once observed how when Chacham Ovadia came to give a shiur in Porat Yosef, he kissed the hand of Chacham Shalom. It took me quite a while to understand what this display of honor was all about. Harav Shach told Chacham Shalom to remain in Chacham Ovadia’s camp even when there were detractors. He appreciated this and wanted to show his recognition of his devotion. In the end, Chacham Ovadia was the driving force of the revolution of the Sephardic Jews and their return to the Torah ways. Chacham Ovadia led the masses in throughout the country, and Chacham Shalom was the leader in the Sephardic yeshivah world.

“Chacham Shalom realized that if there was to be a successful resurgence of the Sephardic Torah world, a different approach had to be taken. He saw the success of the Litvishe Torah world, and he modeled his yeshivah after it. He had the Roshei Yeshivah dress in homburgs and frocks, and he changed the manner of learning to resemble the Ashkenazi yeshivah world. He understood that we must go with what is successful and, through this, he was able to be mahzir atarah l’yoshnah , to bring back the Sephardic masses to the glory of their past.

“It is no wonder that his havruta from his younger years, Chacham Yosef Harari-Raful, the Rosh Yeshivah and leader of Ateret Torah in Brooklyn, used the same methods here in America, and together they were able to effectuate a revolution in the Sephardic communities: Chacham Shalom in Eretz Yisrael, and Chacham Yosef in America. As for myself, I have turned to both these giants to guide me in my own work as a Rebbi in Magen David Yeshiva, where they tell me how to approach and how to proceed in difficult situations. Through this, I am able to help perpetuate the legacy of my revered Rebbi , Chacham Shalom Cohen, which is l’hahzir atarah l’yoshnah