The first time Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron met Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was at a daily class he gave to hard-working men at the Shemesh Tzedaka synagogue in Jerusalem's Bucharim neighborhood. Of the fifteen present only a few were listening, while the majority dozed. From time to time, one of the dozing men asked the Rabbi to tell a tale, and he complied. Ten years later, Rabbi Bakshi - Doron received a book written by a distinguished Torah scholar, in which he differed with Rabbi Ovadia. The author was the grandson of one of the dozing men.
Our tradition instructs us to "Beware of the children of the poor, for they will emanate Torah"; this was the topic of the rabbis' convention we held towards the end of the month of Tishrei – the Rabbi's role in listening to the cry of the destitute. We held the convention at the Sephardic Educational Center and marked the end of yet another cohort of the MERHAV program – our Beit Midrash for Rabbinic social leadership. The convention highlighted our graduates, who have completed two intensive years of study and in-depth exploration of the Sephardi heritage of social responsibility, and hosted prominent rabbis as well as our devoted friends and supporters who came to listen and learn.
The significance of such conventions is that they provide new departure points on the paths to instilling and promoting the social values of Memizrach Shemesh: values of solidarity, caring, interdependence and of an awareness of others. These were the values prominently voiced at the moment of transition from one cohort of rabbis, on its way to take action out in the world, to the new group - the sixth - beginning its journey of in-depth study of the Sephardi heritage. Eli Bareket, Memizrach Shemesh CEO, called upon the program's graduates to set out and establish MERHAV type programs of their own in their communities and in the educational institutions that they head.
The convention, which dealt with the rabbi's role in listening to the cry of the destitute, was led by Rabbi Yitzhak Chouraqui and Rabbi David Zeno, who lead the MERHAV Beit Midrash. Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Director of the Sephardic Educational Center and our new partner in the program, spoke of the challenges facing rabbis in the 21st century. Rabbi David Lau, Israel's Chief Rabbi, who spoke of the social role of the derasha [sermon], honored us by his presence, as did many more. As Rabbi Bakshi-Doron, President of the Beit Midrash, said in his blessings, we hope that with Hashem's help we will prosper and that our Beit Midrash gates will continue to broaden.