The President of the Council of Torah Sages of the Shas Party, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, has passed away at the age of 91.
The rabbi died at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem after several days in which he was hospitalized in serious condition in the intensive care unit.
His funeral will depart at 2:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon from the Porat Yosef synagogue in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem to the Sanhedria cemetery.
Rabbi Cohen was taken to the hospital on Monday of last week due to an infection in his leg. On Thursday, his condition deteriorated and the public was called to pray for the healing of Rabbi Shalom ben Tufacha Malka.
Due to the worsening of the rabbi's condition, prayer gatherings were held throughout the country. Among other things, rabbis gathered at the Yazdim Synagogue in Jerusalem, before the weekly lesson of Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, which is held there every Saturday night.
On Sunday, rabbis gathered at the home in Jerusalem of Rabbi Cohen’s brother-in-law, Rabbi Shlomo ben Shimon, to recite Psalms. After the Psalms were recited, the Rabbis announced the addition of the name “Chaim” to the name of the President of the Council of Torah Sages.
On Sunday night, his condition deteriorated once again and his family members were called to the hospital to be at his side.
Rabbi Shalom Cohen, known as "Hacham Shalom", headed the prestigious haredi Porat Yosef Yeshiva, and for the past eight years, since the death of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has served as the leader of the Shas party with which he was identified even before and as the President of its Council of Torah Sages.
Hacham Shalom Cohen was born in Jerusalem to Malka and Rabbi Ephraim Cohen. After his marriage, he was appointed rabbi of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva. Together with Rabbi Shimon Adani, he founded another branch of the Porat Yosef Yeshiva, in the Katamon neighborhood of Jerusalem.
After the passing of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in 2013, Rabbi Cohen was appointed to act as President of the Council of Torah Sages. Priot the death of his wife Yael, he lived in the Jewish Quarter in an apartment belonging to the Porat Yosef Yeshiva and since then he has lived intermittently in his daughter's home in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem.