Sefarim were his Bread

But Rav Ovadiah said that his original writing mentors were none other than the first sefarim in his private, treasured collection. “Do you see these sefarim behind me?” he once asked Mishpacha’s Yossi Elituv, as he pointed to the thousands of sefarim that line his room. “These sefarim are my fathers and teachers. When I was very young, I saved penny after penny so that I could purchase them. I went without bread to be able to buy another sefer for my home.”

As a young avreich who received just six liras a month, Rav Ovadiah would put aside a little money to purchase sefarim. “The first ones I bought were the six volumes of Yisa Brachah, authored by the Rishon L’Tzion, Rav Yaakov Shaul Elyashar ztz”l,” he remembered decades later. “Each volume cost 25 grush; don’t forget that there were coins worth a grush at that time. I would buy the sefarim, and when I came home I would hide them under my coat so that my family wouldn’t be upset at me. I purchased these sefarim with my blood. Although I used money that was for my children’s bread, this is our real bread, our spiritual bread, the bread of our chachamim.”

Rav Ovadiah Yosef credits those worn, aging sefarim with his identity as a premier posek. “I did not, chalilah, build my halachic decisions on leaps of logic or instinct. Rather, I spent many hours poring over these sefarim, and for that, I have a deep sense of gratitude toward them.”

Rav Ovadiah’s earliest writings were encouraged by his rebbi, Rav Ezra Attiyah. “I had the privilege of sitting with him on a Sephardic beit din in Yerushalayim, where I served as a dayan,” he explained. “There were three dayanim there: Rav Ezra Attiyah, who was the av beit din; Rav Yehuda Shako, who was the head bochen at Yeshivat Porat Yosef; and myself. I was only 24 years old at the time, but I already had the privilege of serving on a beit din together with gedolim. Between cases, we spoke a lot and we learned together. During that time, I would study various sefarim, and after I had examined the words of all the Rishonim and Acharonim, I would put my conclusions in writing. I brought those notes to Rav Ezra, and he would examine them and encourage me to continue recording my chiddushim.”