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Thousands gather around the body of Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri during his funeral in Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem, Sunday. (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners January 30, 2006 |
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| Thousands follow a van carrying the body of Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri during his funeral in Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem, Sunday. (AP) |
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An estimated 200,000 people filled the streets of Jerusalem Sunday for the funeral of Rabbi Yitzhak Kadouri, regarded as the most senior of spiritual leaders in the mystical Jewish tradition of Kabbalah. He was believed to be about 106.
Kadouri, a leader of the Kabbalah school of Jewish mystical thought, died Saturday of complications from pneumonia after his liver failed during an operation. Even at his advanced age, Kadouri was sought out for blessings by believers suffering from illnesses or seeking heavenly favors.
Israel's president and chief rabbis eulogized Kadouri at a rabbinical seminary before a huge funeral procession snaked through Jerusalem to the cemetery at the outskirts of the city.
"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.
The AP contributed to this report.
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