Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, eldest son of Shas’ spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has been diagnosed with a serious illness, his son told Arutz Sheva on Wednesday.
The son, Yonatan, said, “Everyone should pray for my father. We need a lot of prayers and grace from G-d.”
He added that his father will continue to give daily lessons in his yeshiva and will continue to deliver a weekly D’var Torah in the Borochov synagogue in Jerusalem. He asked that everyone include his father, Rabbi Yaakov Chai ben Margalit, in their prayers and ask for his full recovery.
Rabbi Yaakov Yosef is one of several rabbis who were arrested and questioned by police over their stamp of approval to the book Torat Hamelech, authored by Rabbi Yitzchak Shapira, who heads the Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in Yitzhar. Giving haskama, or approbation, is a routine measure when a book is logically coherent halakhically.
The book has been a cause for controversy because, although it makes no direct mention of Arabs, some have said that the book incites to kill Arabs. Rabbi Shapira was himself arrested by police for questioning over the book.