Several weeks ago, on the 3rd of Kislev, we commemorated the tenth anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shilo Raphael, who had served as head of a Jerusalem rabbinical court from 1989 until his death and whose demise at the young age of 54 left a void in in rabbinical circles in Jerusalem.
On the occasion of his 10th Yahrzeit a large memorial meeting was held in Jerusalem and the widely read religious weekly Mishpacha, published a long article about his life and personality. Rabbi Shilo Raphael was a grandson of the famous Mizrachi leader Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon (Fishman) founder of Mossad HaRav Kook and Israel’s first Minister for Religious Affairs. His father was the writer and scholar Dr. Yitzchak Raphael, who in the first years of the State of Israel, organized the mass immigration of Jews from different countries to the Jewish state. He was for 26 years a member of the Knesset, representing the Mizrachi, and served as Deputy Minister of Health and as Minister for Religious Affairs in the Israeli government. Rabbi Shilo Raphael’s mother, Geulah Bat Yehuda, is a well known writer, translator and historian of religious Zionism.
Early in life Shilo Raphael was seized by a great desire to study Talmud. In an interview with Mishpacha, Geulah Bat Yehuda related that when Shilo was ten years old he asked her to stop his piano lessons because he wanted to have more time to study Gemara. After his mother agreed to his request he asked the piano be removed from the home altogether. Shilo studied for two years at the HaDarom Yeshiva in Rechovot and subsequently for three years at Yeshivat Kol Torah in Jerusalem. He loved and revered Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, the Rosh Yeshiva of Kol Torah whom he regarded as his teacher par excellence until the end of his life. For the following four years Shiloh studied at Jerusalem’s Hevron Yeshiva. It was during his studies at the Hevron Yeshiva that Shilo became attracted to the Hasidim of Gur and their Admor, Rabbi Yisrael Alter, the author of Beth Yisrael, whose follower and intimate disciple he became. Rabbi Shiloh Rapahel described the Rebbe as his mentor and guide over a period of 18 years. His association with Gur did not end with the death of the Beth Yisrael in 1977. In his will he asked to be buried in the plot of the Hasidim of Gur in the Har HaMenuhot cemetery in Jerusalem (The Beth Yisrael is buried on the Mount of Olives).
He then studied for one year at the Harry Fischel Institute in Jerusalem, and afterwards at Mossad HaRav Kook’s Beth HaTalmud, a Kollel for the training of rabbis and rabbinical court judges which was established at his initiative. The Kollel headed by Rabbi Yaakov Betzalel Zolty accepted only outstanding students. For nine years he studied with great diligence at the Kollel and was ordained by Rabbi Zolty. He also received ordination from Rabbi Shlomo Yosef Zevin who examined him for several hours and from Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. While he was studying at the Kollel, Shilo Raphael served as editor of and contributed articles to the Kollel’s publication-Beth HatTalmud- whose eight published volumes featured Torah studies by the students of the Kollel. After the death of Rabbi Y.R. Zolty in the autumn of 1982, Rabbi Raphael became head of Kollel Beth HaTalmud serving in that capacity until its closure in 1993.
In the autumn of 1969, at the age of 29, Rabbi Shiloh Raphael had been chosen as rabbi of “Ohel Yitzchak,” the major congregation of Jerusalem’s Kiryat Moshe quarter. Some time later he became the rabbi of the entire neighborhood. He lectured regularly at the synagogue and delivered sermons on Sabbaths and festivals. Many came from afar to hear his speeches.
In 1979, after passing with excellence the required examinations, he was appointed judge in a rabbinical court. First he served as Dayyan in Rechovot and later he held a similar position in Jerusalem. In 1989, as stated earlier, he was appointed head of a Jerusalem rabbinical court.
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, December 24, 2004 p. 65
Rabbi Shiloh Rapahel was acclaimed as a brilliant and devoted rabbinical judge who tried to bring justice to the parties in each case that was brought before the court. He implemented strong measures, including imprisonment against husbands who refused to grant divorces to their wives, actions that were applauded by women’s organizations. In one instance he even ran after a husband who had changed his mind about granting a divorce to his wife and brought him back to the court. Speaking about his dealings with those who refused to divorce their wives, Rabbi Raphael once remarked “The tears and the distress of Jewish women move Jewish judges more than the lawyers’ big speeches.”
He was often chosen to represent the rabbinical courts in public discussions. He was also very much sought after by women’s organizations to lecture on problems of particular interest to them.
Landmark decisions by Rabbi Rapahel include the verdict that a woman who was married contrary to Halakha in a Reform ceremony was not to be regarded as married, and the removal of the stigma of Mamzerut (illegitimacy) from four brothers by voiding the Orthodox marriage of their mother.
Rabbi Raphael was assigned difficult and complicated court cases on the assumption that he would be able to find satisfactory solutions. In 1989 the Minister for Religious Affairs appointed him to head a panel to look into divorce proceedings that had been dragging on for years. He was about to be appointed member of the Rabbinical High Court, but he died two weeks before his nomination was to be ratified.
After the beginning of the mass immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union, Rabbi Raphael visited various Russian Jewish communities in order to lean firsthand about their problems, particularly those related to their absorption in Israel, and to be of help to them. His Beth Din in Jerusalem often dealt with questions regarding the conversion to Judaism of new Russian immigrants and their Jewish identity.
He often spoke at rabbinic conferences and conventions. In 1992 he spoke at a rabbinic conference in Moscow. In London he addressed an annual convention of European rabbis. He visited the U.S. and Canada several times and spoke at Mossad HaRav Kook’s Oral Torah Convention. In Israel he was a frequent participant at these conferences.
Rabbi Rapahel began writing at an early age. He contributed articles on Halakha to many Torah journals. His court decisions were printed not only in the publications of the rabbinic courts but appeared in other venues as well.
He founded and headed Mossad HaRav Kook’s Makhon Lehotza’at Rishonim veAhronim(Institute for the Publication of the Writings of Early and later Rabbinic Authorities). The publications of the institute included excellent, annotated editions based on early printings and on manuscripts of early Talmudic commentaries. These were extremely well received in the Torah world and have been reprinted several times.
He himself prepared for print the Hiddushim (novellae) of Ritba (R. Yom Tov ben Abraham Ishbili) on Tractate Hullin, based on early printings and on manuscripts found in Moscow, New York and Madrid (1982), and the Hiddushim of Ritba on Tractate Bava Metzia, based on manuscripts found in London, Moscow, New York and Madrid (1992).
Both editions carry interesting introductions. The introduction to the Hiddushim on Bava Metzia is dated, “the 15th of Mar Heshvan, 5753, the anniversary of the death of the Hazon Ish.”
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, December 31, 2004
Rabbi Shilo Raphael’s editions of the Hiddushim of Ritba – on Tractate Hullin as well as on Tractate Bava Metzia were reprinted several times. In 1993 he was awarded the prestigious Rabbi Kook Prize of the Municipality of Tel Aviv for his edition of the Hiddushim of Ritba on Tractate Bava Metzia.
Rabbi Raphael had begun to prepare for print the Hiddushim of Rashba (R. Solomon ben Abraham Adret) on Tractate Ketubbot shortly before his premature death. He was able to complete the Hiddushim on the first two chapters only. They were published posthumously.
Rabbi Raphael also wrote beautiful biographical essays about prominent rabbis. They were printed as introductions to the writings of these rabbis that were published by Mossad HaRav Kook. Rabbinic personalities and their writings described by Rabbi Raphael include Rabbi Solomon b. Moses of Chelm, author of Mirkevet HaMishneh on Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah and other books; Rabbi David Friedman of Karlin, Rabbi Malkiel Zvi HaLevi Tennenbaum of Lomza, author of responsa Divrei Malkiel; Rabbi Menahem Krakowsky of Vilna, author of Avodat HaMelekh; and Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg.
Rabbi Raphael was also involved to some extent in the publications of writings by his grandfather, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon. Many books in the late Rabbi Maimon’s large library were annotated with handwritten comments by Rabbi Maimon. In one book, Kehillat Ya’akov, authored by Rabbi Yisrael Ya’akov Algazi, chief rabbi of Jerusalem in the 18th century were handwritten comments by Rabbi Maimon on the binding and in the margins of the pages in his youth. When Mossad HaRav Kook published a jubilee volume of its periodical Sinai in 1987, part of Rabbi Maimon’s notes on Kehillat Yaakov were included, with a short introduction by Rabbi Shilo Raphael. Init Rabbi Raphael stated that Rabbi Maimon’s notes testified to his wide erudition in his early youth. Rabbi Raphael published only part of the notes and expressed the hope of eventually printing all of them. Apparently, he never managed to carry out that plan.
Rabbi Raphael died toward the end of 1994, after several months of illness, at the young age of fifty-four. Despite the very bad weather, thousands attended his funeral. In accordance with his wish, no eulogies were delivered. He also asked that no titles be added to his name on the tombstone.
His survivors include his widow, a daughter of Rabbi Aaron Katz and granddaughter of Rabbe Reuven Katz, the Rabbi of Petakh Tikva, a son and five daughters and his mother, Geula Bat Yehuda. His son and sons-in-law are all rabbinic scholars.
After his death, Mossad HaRav Kook published a selection of his writings under the title Mishkan Shilo. The volume which includes Hiddushei Torah, articles on Halakha, Halakhic rulings and biographies of rabbis was assembled and prepared for print by Rabbi Yosef Eliyahu Movshovitz, one of the sons-in-law of Rabbi Raphael. It also carries a biography of Rabbi Raphael by Geula bat Yehuda.
Geula Bat Yehuda, who also contributed a biography of Rabbi Shilo Raphael to the latest volume of the Hebrew Encyclopedia of Religious Zionism, of which she is an assistant editor, notes that Rabbi Raphael had planned to write several books. She mentions in particular two literary projects of his: a book about Rabbi Yisrael Alter, the Admor of Gur, author of Beth Yisrael, whose faithful follower he had been for many years, and a book modelled on Rabbi Shelomo Yosef Zevin’s famous Ishim VeShitot, in which he intended to describe the lives, opinions and Halakhic views of Rabbi Hayyim Halberstam of Sanz, Rabbi Yizchak Meir of Gur, Rabbi Abraham Bornstein of Sochaczew, Rabbi Zadok HaKohen of Lublin and similar personalities. His premature death prevented him from dedicating himself to the realization of these literary projects.
The Jewish Press, January 7, 2005 p.35