Rebbe Rebbe

He used to constantly teach us “Don’t be a baal shita. Learn everybody and everything. Love all jews.”

I once asked what does Rebbi say about a certain set of Se- forim that didn’t want to quote Rav Ovadia Yosef psakim de- liberately. He couldn’t believe that there would be such a thing. He refused to believe that someone can do such a thing.

He later made his own research and was told the same. He

quipped: “It Doesn’t make sense how you talk against someone who knows more than you”.

In his small room that he stayed in Queens, Rebbi made himself a sanctuary. He wanted the avrechim to arrange that he should have every single Sefer Rav Ovadia Yosef and his sons wrote. He was later gifted a big framed picture of Rav Ovadia Yosef and hang it up in his room. This was Rebbi’s way of showing us how much he valued sefardi Gedolim that his talmidim relat- ed to.

He would use all these sefarim
to teach his daily Halacha shire
after shiur. Rebbi knew Rav Ovadia’s long teshuvot and would surprise even sefardi rabanim.