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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 28, 2006 |
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Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri, regarded as the most senior of spiritual leaders in the mystical Jewish tradition of Kabbalah, died Saturday evening at Bikkur Holim hospital in Jerusalem, where he had been treated two weeks for pneumonia. A native of Baghdad, he was believed to be well over 100 years old. His funeral will take place Sunday at 1:30 in the capital's Bucharian Quarter, and is expected to draw tens of thousands.
Kadouri, a died Saturday after his liver failed during an operation. Hundreds of his followers, many crying, gathered outside the Jerusalem hospital where he died. Even at his advanced age, Kadouri was sought out for blessings by believers suffering from illnesses or seeking heavenly favors.
"Thousands and thousands of people have benefited from his blessings - cancer patients, heart patients, couples without children," said Moshe Nimni, his chief aide.
People seeking blessings would crowd his house and sometimes line up outside, waiting for an unintelligible incantation.
For the last decade, the frail, thin Kabbalist with the wispy white beard and trademark cylindrical headgear did not speak loudly enough to be heard. His pronouncements were relayed by his sons, who would lean down and place their ears close to his lips.
Despite his great prestige, Kadouri retained his modest lifestyle to the end of his days: The only sign of an upscale move was his switch in the past few years from Israeli-made Noblesse cigarettes to Marlboro Lights.
Kadouri's appeal was mostly among Jews of Middle East origin. A reported word from the venerated rabbi could move political mountains.
In 2000, a little-known parliamentary backbencher named Moshe Katsav ran for Israeli president against the world-renowned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres. Katsav won a shocking victory after Kadouri said he had a "vision" that Katsav was favored by the heavens - and all 17 members of Shas, an Orthodox Jewish party, voted for Katsav, now Israel's president.
In 1999, Kadouri galvanized opposition to an emerging peace deal with Syria in exchange for the strategic Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 war. At a Shas rally, he proclaimed that the plateau "must not be given back to the gentiles." The talks fell through a year later.
Shas used the ancient rabbi as a rallying point in several elections. Once he was in such demand that Shas politicos bundled him into a helicopter and flew him over several election gatherings to spread his spiritual grace over as wide an area as possible.
Kadouri took on world figures, as well. In 1998, he pronounced a curse on Saddam Hussein, willing him to be removed from power. "Let fear fall upon them (the Iraqis)," he said, after Saddam threatened Israel. "Let the curse be transferred to them."
Pop star Madonna did not escape his critical gaze, either. One of the most prominent of the glitterati who have taken up Kabbalah, Madonna made a high-energy trip to Israel in 2004, including a midnight visit to the grave of a sage.
Kadouri was not moved. "It is forbidden to teach Kabbalah to a non-Jew," he said, dismissing the new movement in its entirety. According to Jewish tradition, mysticism and Zohar, the mystical book at the base of Kabbalah, are so complicated and even dangerous that only Jews over the age of 40 can approach them.
The source of Kadouri's appeal is hard to pinpoint. While recognized as a kabbalist, or a Jewish scholar steeped in the methods of Zohar, Kadouri never published a notable work or made a groundbreaking discovery or religious revelation.
"Like all mystical and mythical figures, the fact that Rabbi Kadouri has recently been less productive and communicative doesn't affect his acclaim," Avishai Ben Haim, the Maariv newspaper's reporter on ultra-Orthodox affairs, told Army Radio recently. "Unlike other rabbis ... Rabbi Kadouri never sought a public. He is all about aura."
It often appeared that his age alone was a magnet of attraction and reverence. Ben Haim calculated Kadouri was 106, Israel Radio reported his age as 108, and Nimni, his aide, said he was "at least 112 or 113." Records of his birth, if they ever existed, are long gone.
"I think the basis of his secret (for long life) is happiness," Nimni told Army Radio before Kadouri's death. "You can always see him with a smile on his face. Also, thousands of people are praying for him."
Kadouri was to be buried Sunday in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul cemetery.
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