{{Short description|Israeli Sephardi rabbi and rosh yeshiva}} {{Infobox Jewish leader | honorific-prefix = Rabbi | name = Yaakov Ades<br>יעקב עדס | honorific-suffix = | title = | image = Yaakov Ades.jpg | caption = Rabbi Yaakov Ades in 1952 | synagogueposition = | synagogue = | yeshivaposition = Rosh Yeshiva | yeshiva = Porat Yosef Yeshiva | organisationposition = Dayan and Av Beit Din | organisation = Israel Rabbinate High Court of Appeals | began = | ended = | predecessor = | successor = | rabbi = | rank = | other_post = Dayan, Sephardic Beit Din of Jerusalem (1944–1955) | denomination = Orthodox Judaism | birth_name = Yaakov Hai Zion Ades | birth_date = February 24, 1898 | birth_place = Jerusalem, Ottoman Empire | death_date = {{Death date and age|1963|07|19|1898|02|24}} | death_place = Jerusalem, Israel | buried = Har HaMenuchot | nationality = | residence = | parents = Avraham Haim Ades<br/> Tzalha Swed | spouse = Haya Esther Harari-Raful | children = Avraham Haim<br/>Ezra<br/>Moshe Yosef<br/>Yehuda<br />1 daughter | occupation = | profession = | employer = | alma_mater = Porat Yosef Yeshiva | semicha = | signature = | website = }} '''Yaakov Hai Zion Ades''' ({{langx|he|יעקב חי ציון עדס}}; February 24, 1898 – July 19, 1963),<ref name=grave>{{cite web|url=http://www.mytzadik.com/index.asp?lid=6&page=tzadik&kid=1489|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120909230918/http://www.mytzadik.com/index.asp?lid=6&page=tzadik&kid=1489|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 9, 2012|title=רבי יעקב חי ציון עדס|trans-title=Rabbi Yaakov Hai Zion Ades|language=he|publisher=mytzadik.com|access-date=8 October 2013}}</ref> also spelled '''Adas''' or '''Adess''', was a Sephardi Hakham, Rosh Yeshiva, and Rabbinical High Court judge. As rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva in Jerusalem, he raised thousands of students,<ref name=grave/> including Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel; Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul, rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef; and Rabbi Yehuda Hakohen Rabin, Chief Rabbi of Bukharan Jewry in Israel.<ref name=yated>{{cite web |url=http://www.sephardiclegacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/R-Yaakob-Ades-August-2008-Yated-Neeman.pdf|title=Rav Yaakov Ades zt"l – Dayan and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Porat Yosef|work=Yated Ne'eman |date=1 August 2008|pages=34–35}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nrg.co.il/online/11/ART2/511/794.html?hp=11&cat=1103&loc=115 |title= המהפכות הגדולות של הרב עובדיה יוסף |trans-title=The Great Revolutions of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef|language=he|work=Maariv|date=7 October 2013|first=Rabbi Dr. Benjamin|last=Lau|access-date=8 October 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chareidi.org/archives5762/N62arrabin.htm|title=News: HaRav Yehuda Hakohen Rabin zt"l |first=Betzalel |last=Kahn |date=17 October 2001|access-date=8 October 2013|work=Dei’ah VeDibur}}</ref>
==Family and early life== Ades' parents were Rabbi Avraham Haim Ades (1848–1925) and Tzalha, daughter of Rabbi Moshe Swed, Rav of Aleppo.<ref name=light/> In Aleppo, his father was regarded as a great Hakham, kabbalist, author, and teacher of future Sephardic Torah leaders such as Rabbi Yosef Yedid Halevi, Rabbi Ezra Chamawi, Rabbi Yaakov Katzin, Rabbi Shlomo Laniado, and Rabbi Ezra Attiya. Upon his parents' aliyah to Israel in 1896, his father helped found Rechovot Hanahar, a yeshiva for kabbalists in the Bukharim quarter, and served on the beit din of the Aram Soba (Aleppo) community.<ref name=light>{{cite web|url=http://www.torahcenter.com/bios/aades.htm|title=A Light from Aram Soba: Rav Avraham Ades (5608/1848-28 Av 5685/1925)|first=D.|last=Sofer|work=Yated Ne’eman|access-date=8 October 2013|archive-date=7 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207134939/http://torahcenter.com/bios/aades.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Ades was born in Jerusalem, the youngest of four sons.<ref name=deiah>{{cite web |url=http://www.chareidi.org/archives5761/pinchas/PNCSfeatures.htm|title=Kol Yaakov, Beco'ach Uvehodor: A Voice Of Power And Beauty -- The Life Of HaRav Yaakov Adess, 27th Tammuz 5761, His Thirty-Eighth Yahrtzeit|first=Moshe|last=Musman|date=11 July 2001|access-date=9 October 2013|publisher=Dei'ah VeDibur}}</ref> He received his early education from his father, but at age 12 was sent to study in Yeshiva Ohel Moed under Rabbis Yosef Yedid Halevi and Shlomo Laniado.<ref name=deiah/><ref name=ross>{{cite book |last=Rossoff |first=Dovid |title=קדושים אשר בארץ: קברי צדיקים בירושלים ובני ברק |trans-title=The Holy Ones in the Earth: Graves of Tzaddikim in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak|language=he|year=2005|pages=503–504|publisher=Machon Otzar HaTorah |location=Jerusalem}}</ref> Four years later, in 1914, the drafting of students by the Turkish army in World War I prompted many students to flee to Egypt and Bukhara and the yeshiva disbanded. Ades managed to remain in Jerusalem during the war and rejoined the yeshiva when it reopened in 1918.<ref name=yated/><ref name=deiah/>
On March 7, 1919 Ades married Haya Esther, daughter of Rabbi Ezra Harari-Raful, a leading rabbi of Aleppo and founder of Yeshivat Ohel Moed.<ref name=yated/><ref name=deiah/> In 1920, at the age of 22, Ades was asked to serve as a ''maggid shiur'' (Torah lecturer) in Yeshiva Ohel Moed.<ref name=ross/> Ades continued in this position until 1923, when the yeshiva closed and its staff and students relocated to the newly opened Porat Yosef Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem.<ref name=yated/>
Ades taught at Porat Yosef for the next 20 years,<ref name=yated/> raising thousands of students.<ref name=grave/> Every day he delivered a ''shiur'' (lecture) on Talmudic topics in the morning and a ''shiur'' on the Tur and Choshen Mishpat in the afternoon.<ref name=deiah/><ref name=ross/> All of his unpublished Torah writings from that period were destroyed when the Jordanian Arab Legion set fire to the yeshiva during their occupation of the Old City in 1948.<ref name=deiah/><ref name=ross/>
==Rabbinical court judge== [[File:Israel Rabbinate High Court of Appeals1959.jpg|225px|right|thumb|Rabbinical High Court, 1959. L. to r.: Rabbi Yaakov Ades, Rabbi Ovadia Hedaya, Rabbi Bezalel Zolty.]] In 1935 Ades, then a senior ''{{Transliteration|he|maggid shiur}}'' at Yeshivat Ohel Moed, was offered a seat on the Sephardic Beit Din of Jerusalem by the Rishon Le-zion, Rabbi Yaakov Meir. Ades filled this role until 1943. In 1944, he was asked to sit on the Sephardic Beit Din of Tel Aviv, and at the same time was appointed as the Rav of a Syrian synagogue in Tel Aviv. He would spend the entire week in Tel Aviv, only returning to his home in Jerusalem for Shabbat.<ref name=yated/><ref name=ross/>
In 1945 he was appointed as ''av beit din'' of the Sephardic Beit Din of Jerusalem.<ref name=ross/> In 1953 he was asked to serve as Chief Rabbi of Israel, but declined.<ref name=deiah/> In 1955 he accepted a seat on the Beit Din HaGadol (Rabbinical High Court), first as a ''{{Transliteration|he|dayan}}'' and later as ''{{Transliteration|he|av beit din}}''. His fellow ''{{Transliteration|he|dayanim}}'' included Rabbi Betzalel Zolty, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.<ref name=yated/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com/Rabbi%20Yosef%20Shalom%20Elyashiv.asp|title=Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv|publisher=rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com|access-date=8 October 2013}}</ref> Ades presided on the High Court until his death in 1963.<ref name=yated/>
==Personal== Ades was punctilious in his observance of mitzvot. He would spend hours selecting his ''arba'ah minim'' (the Four Species of Sukkot), examining hundreds of hadassim until he found the one that met all halakhic requirements.<ref name=ross/> He was also known for his humility and modesty. Unbeknownst to his family, he would arise each night at midnight to study Kabbalah.<ref name=grave/>
Ades and his wife had seven sons and two daughters; one son and daughter died of pneumonia in their youth.<ref name=deiah/> In 1936 their firstborn son, Avraham Haim, died at the age of 16 after minor surgery.<ref name=deiah/><ref name=ross/> Three sons went on to become rabbinic leaders: *Ezra Nissim Ades (d. 2012)<ref name=kikar>{{cite web |url=http://www.kikarhashabat.co.il/%D7%93%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%95-%D7%94%D7%90%D7%97%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%A0%D7%94-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%91-%D7%A2%D7%93%D7%A1-%D7%94%D7%95%D7%91%D7%90-%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%A0%D7%95.html|title=נפטר הרב עזרא נסים עדס|trans-title=Rabbi Ezra Nissim Ades Dies|last=Ben Haim |first=Nissim|language=he|work=Kikar HaShabbat |date=11 March 2012 |access-date=8 February 2013}}</ref> – Rav of Congregation Shaarei Tzedek in Manchester, England and Rav in Herzliya, Israel<ref name=bhol>{{cite web |url=http://www.bhol.co.il/article_en.aspx?id=38908 |title=From the Rabbonim of Hertzelia. Harav Hagaon R' Ezra Nissim Ades zt"l |first=Moshe |last=Weissberg |work=Bechadrei Hareidim |date=11 March 2011 |access-date=8 February 2013 |archive-date=14 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314064425/http://www.bhol.co.il/Article_EN.aspx?id=38908 |url-status=dead }}</ref> *Moshe Yosef Ades, rosh yeshiva of Porat Yosef Yeshiva *Yehuda Ades, rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Kol Yaakov, Jerusalem<ref name=bhol/>
==Death and legacy== Ades died on July 19, 1963 (27 Tammuz 5723) after a four-month illness.<ref name=yated/> He was buried in the Sephardic rabbinical section on Har HaMenuchot. His wife Haya Esther died in 1988 and was buried beside him.<ref name=grave/>
His son Rabbi Yehuda Ades founded Yeshivat Kol Yaakov in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem in his memory.<ref name=yated/>
His grandson and namesake Rabbi Yaakov Ades (b. 1964), son of Yehuda Ades, is a noted Torah scholar, kabbalist, and author.
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
{{Porat Yosef Yeshiva}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ades, Yaakov}} Category:Sephardi rabbis Category:Rosh yeshivas Category:20th-century rabbis in Jerusalem Category:Sephardi rabbis in Mandatory Palestine Category:Sephardic Haredi rabbis in Israel Category:Immigrants of the First Aliyah Category:Burials at Har HaMenuchot Category:1898 births Category:1963 deaths