Maran Harav Ovadia: the Revered Gaon and Posek who Restored the Crown of Sephardic Jewry

So ...its been a really long time..I had finals..and then "summer break" and now back to real life.

So somewhere in that interim ( read: a long time ago) Artscroll contacted me about writing a book review..I was so honored I said yes! right away! But then school got in the way...but here it is...My first official BOOK REVIEW!

My first thought when I received it..was man this book is thick..this is going to take forever! It is actually 561 pages. I figured I had a few Shabbatot worth of reading ahead of me. The exact opposite was true. I could not put it down... I was walking down the streets reading as I went. It was enthralling, exciting an inviting. 

I'm not one to read biographies of Gedolim. I always say that I should..and I always think that it is important to and one day I will have a huge library filled to the rim with every Artscroll book ever published..all the biographies included and I would be inspired. But realistically it never really happened. But this one was different. R' Ovadia Yosef. Being Sephardi, I felt like I owed it to myself to read this. Sephardic Jewry is changed forever and completely by the works and the life of Maran. 

We know that at his funeral " an estimated 850,000 people came running the gamut of Israeli society, came to pay their last respects." Never have we seen such a turn out. So many people from so many different walks of life come together, united by their love and grief over the loss of one man. 

The biography, written by Rabbi Yehuda Heimowitz is written is true Sephardic style, with the sephardic pronunciations and spellings. I was impressed by the breadth of information that was present. Every page told more and shed more light on the Gadol that is so missed in our day. 

One starts to get a feel right away, of what kind of person Maran was, even from a very young age. From the time he first published his own sefer at 18. To the way he persuaded his wife to marry him. His entire life was Torah, his entire being was Torah. He risked his own life on multiple occasions to uphold the sanctity and the emet of the Torah. 

After his, passing, Hespeidim (eulogies) were abound. In every corner of the globe people gathered to hear about his greatness. Many stories were told. The biography contains all those stories and more. The many pictures depict his real life, his real persona. The stories told by Maran's sons and neighbors..give us maybe a glimpse into the mind and the thoughts of Maran Harav Ovadia. 

I definitely recommend taking the time to open it and read it. Yes, it may seem daunting at first. Its a big book, but that comes out of necessity When one is a gadol,,it is only fitting that his biography reflect that.