Yaakov Ades

Family and early life

Ades' parents were Rabbi Avraham Haim Ades (1848–1925) and Tzalha, daughter of Rabbi Moshe Swed, Rav of Aleppo. 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.

Ades was born in Jerusalem, the youngest of four sons. 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. 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.

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. In 1920, at the age of 22, Ades was asked to serve as a maggid shiur (Torah lecturer) in Yeshiva Ohel Moed. 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.

Ades taught at Porat Yosef for the next 20 years, raising thousands of students. 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. All of his unpublished Torah writings from that period were destroyed when the Jordanian Arab Legion set fire to the yeshiva during their occupation of the Old City in 1948.

Rabbinical court judge

In 1935 Ades, then a senior 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.

In 1945 he was appointed as av beit din of the Sephardic Beit Din of Jerusalem. In 1953 he was asked to serve as Chief Rabbi of Israel, but declined. In 1955 he accepted a seat on the Beit Din HaGadol (Rabbinical High Court), first as a dayan and later as av beit din. His fellow dayanim included Rabbi Betzalel Zolty, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, and Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. Ades presided on the High Court until his death in 1963.

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. He was also known for his humility and modesty. Unbeknownst to his family, he would arise each night at midnight to study Kabbalah.

Ades and his wife had five sons and one daughter; one son and daughter died of pneumonia in their youth. In 1936 their firstborn son, Avraham Haim, died at the age of 16 after minor surgery. Three sons went on to become rabbinic leaders:

Death and legacy

Ades died on July 19, 1963 (27 Tammuz 5723) after a four-month illness. He was buried in the Sephardic rabbinical section on Har HaMenuchot. His wife Haya Esther died in 1988 and was buried beside him.

His son Rabbi Yehuda Ades founded Yeshivat Kol Yaakov in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Jerusalem in his memory.

His grandson and namesake Rabbi Yaakov Ades (b. 1964), son of Yehuda Ades, is a noted Torah scholar, kabbalist, and author.