“I Didn’t Understand Yiddish, So We Ran from the Shmuessen” — Rav Yitzchak Yosef’s Moving Story of His Youth in Chevron Yeshiva

A powerful moment unfolded this past Motzaei Shabbos at the Yazdim Shul in Yerushalayim, where Sephardic Chief Rabbi and nosi of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, delivered his weekly shiur.

During the gathering, Rav Yosef turned to the elder mashgiach, the tzaddik Rav Naftali Chadash, who sat beside him, and shared a deeply personal and moving story from his younger years learning in Yeshivas Chevron—more than 50 years ago—highlighting the remarkable sensitivity of Rav Naftali’s father, the legendary mashgiach, Rav Meir Chadash.

“We had the zechus to learn under him in Yeshivas Chevron,” Rav Yosef began. “All the rabbanim in the yeshiva—Rav Chatzkel Sarna, Rav Moshe Chevroni, Rav Simcha Zissel Broide, Rav Meir Chadash—they all gave their shmuessen in Yiddish. And I didn’t know Yiddish,” he admitted in a rare moment of vulnerability.

Rav Yosef then described the hardship he and his fellow Sephardic students faced at the time. Not fluent in Yiddish, the language used for both learning and general communication in the Ashkenazi yeshiva world of the era, they felt alienated during sichos. “What would we do?” he said. “We’d run to the library, to the women’s section… looking for anywhere to go during the shmuess.”

And then came the revelation that gripped the entire room: “The only one who cared about us,” Rav Yosef declared emotionally, “the only one who cared was Rav Meir Chadash.”

He went on to recount a remarkable act of kindness and sensitivity. “On the nights when there was a shmuess in the yeshiva, afterward, in his own home—he lived downstairs in the yeshiva—he would gather us all, and he would repeat the shmuess in Hebrew.”

Rav Yosef connected the story to the broader worldview of his father, Maran Rav Ovadia Yosef, who sent his sons to both Ashkenazi and Sephardi yeshivos. “To take the good from each,” he explained. He noted that one of the strengths he saw in the Ashkenazi yeshivos was the encouragement and praise given to bochurim. “You need to encourage the boys, to strengthen them,” he emphasized.

The crowd was visibly moved by his words, especially Rav Naftali Chadash, who was hearing for the first time this rare and powerful story about his illustrious father.

{Matzav.com Israel}