Chacham Shalom Cohen led his people with reverence and resolve
Sometime around late morning, a figure in litvish rosh yeshivah garb, whose face spoke of the traditions of the lost world of Baghdad’s Torah centers, walked into the large building at the far left of the Kosel Plaza.
Entering the halls of Yeshivat Porat Yosef — the flagship of the Sephardic Torah world, established at the request of the Ben Ish Chai in the early 1900s — the rav would deliver his daily shiur.
Rain or shine, weekdays, Friday and Shabbos, his mastery of the entire Torah would be laid out for the next generation of bochurim.
Last week, that seemingly timeless journey came to an end. Chacham Shalom Cohen, the preeminent rosh yeshivah of the Sephardi world, was niftar at age 91.
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