Yalkut Yosef
Jerusalem · 1985
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Yitzchak Yosef
Yitzchak Yosef
1952 CE · Modern · Jerusalem
R. Yitzchak Yosef (born 1952) served as Israel's Sephardi Chief Rabbi (the office known as Rishon LeZion) from 2013 until his term ended on 30 June 2024. The son of R. Ovadia Yosef, he has spent his life turning his father's complex legal rulings (pesak) into clear, encyclopedic guides that an ordinary household can actually use.
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Stop 1 of 11973–2024Lived
JerusalemירושליםJudea
What they did here
Served as Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel from 2013, translating his father's halakhic rulings into practical guidance for households.
Jerusalem in this era
Jerusalem in the decades from 1973 onward was a city transformed and contested under Israeli sovereignty, following the 1967 Six-Day War and the subsequent occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. The Jewish community had grown exponentially—from roughly 200,000 in 1967 to over 500,000 by the early 21st century—and Jerusalem became the undisputed political and spiritual heart of the modern Israeli state, though international recognition of its status remained contested. Within this framework, the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) population flourished, establishing dense neighborhoods in the city's north and east, with yeshivas and religious institutions multiplying. The broader backdrop included the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the Lebanon invasion of 1982, multiple Palestinian uprisings (Intifadas), and the Oslo Accords of 1993—turbulent decades that intensified religious identity and community cohesion among Jerusalem's Jews. R. Yitzchak Yosef, a leading Sephardic Haredi authority and eventually Chief Rabbi, came of age and built his influence precisely in this period of simultaneous national consolidation and religious revival, becoming a major voice in shaping Sephardic Orthodoxy and political-religious affairs in modern Israel.
About Jerusalem
Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.
In Jerusalem at the same time
Yechezkel Abramsky, Isser Yehuda Unterman, Shlomo Yosef Zevin, Tzvi Yehuda Kook, Menachem Mendel Kasher, Yisrael Alter
In the same place & time
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Yitzchak Yosef’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
Yechezkel Abramsky, Isser Yehuda Unterman, Shlomo Yosef Zevin, Tzvi Yehuda Kook, Menachem Mendel Kasher, Yisrael Alter, Gershom Scholem, Saul Lieberman, Meir Chadash, Yitzhak Kaduri, Salman Mutzafi, Yaakov Mutzafi, Chaim Shmuelevitz, Yitzchak Weiss, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Nechama Leibowitz, Dovid Lifshitz, Yitzchak Hutner
Works(2)
Yalkut Yosefילקוט יוסף
Jerusalem · 1985
Massive multi-volume halachic compendium — over forty volumes — systematizing the rulings of his father R. Ovadia Yosef on every topic of daily Jewish life. The standard practical halacha reference in Sephardi homes and synagogues today.
Full text not yet available in our corpus.
Related figuresעיOvadia YosefSuggested by shared subject matter, not a documented teaching relationship.