הרב יצחק כדורי

Rav Yitzchak Kaduri (c. 5659/1898–29 Tevet 5766/2006), called in his last years “zekan hamekubalim,” the elder of the mekubalim of Yerushalayim, stood at the head of the Nachalat Yitzchak yeshiva of mekubalim. He was born in Baghdad on 16 Tishrei — the day of the Ushpizin of Yitzchak, for whom he was named — to Kaduri Diba, a spice merchant. He learned at the Beit Zilka study hall and as a youth was connected with Rav Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, the Ben Ish Chai. At seventeen he darshened before the chachamim of Baghdad, who asked him afterward to limit his public drashot for fear of ayin hara.

In 5682/1922 he went up to Eretz Yisrael. He learned at Shoshanim LeDavid, the yeshiva of the Iraqi mekubalim, under Rav Yehuda Petaya, author of Beit Lechem Yehudah, and Rav Yaakov Chaim Sofer, author of the Kaf HaChaim, and then at Porat Yosef in the Old City under the rosh yeshiva Rav Ezra Attiya and, in kabbalah, Rav Salman Eliyahu. Around the time of his marriage he changed his family name from Diba to Kaduri in honor of the father he had left in Baghdad. For years he supported himself binding sefarim in the Bucharim quarter, learning each sefer through before he bound it, for his memory was extraordinary — it was said he knew Shas with Rashi and Tosafot by heart. When the Old City fell in 5708/1948 and the Jordanians burned Porat Yosef, only the manuscripts he had brought out to the Beit El yeshiva of the mekubalim were saved.

His path in kabbalah was the teaching and practice of the kavanot of the Rashash, and after the petirah of Rav Efraim HaKohen in 5749/1989 the remaining mekubalim placed Rav Kaduri at their head. At Nachalat Yitzchak, founded with his son Rav David Kaduri beside the family home in the Bucharim quarter, tefillah was learned according to the seder of the Rashash. Thousands upon thousands came to his door for brachot and counsel, while he himself lived in poverty and simplicity — eating little, speaking little, and traveling each month to daven at kivrei tzaddikim. He printed no sefarim in his lifetime, reserving his writings for students of the wisdom; his torah on tefillot and segulot appeared after his petirah as Kedushat Yitzchak, with notes and explanations by his talmid Rav Yaakov Ades. He was niftar in Yerushalayim on 29 Tevet 5766 at a great age, and more than two hundred thousand accompanied him from Nachalat Yitzchak to his resting place on Har HaMenuchot.