Mori Yichyah Qafich, The Elder

Yiḥyah Qafiḥ רבי יחיא בן שלמה קאפח also Yiḥyah ibn Shalomo el Qafiḥ) (1850–1931), known also by the affectionate name "Ha-Yashish" (= "the Elder"), served as the Chief Rabbi of Sana'a, Yemen in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He studied under the late Rabbi Yiḥya b. Yosef al-Qāreh, and received his ritual-slaughtering license from him in 1870. Although Rabbi Yihya Qafih served for only one year (1899–1900) as the Chief Rabbi of Yemen (Turk. Ḥakham Bāshī), he was a permanent member of the rabbinic court in Sana'a until his death, serving with the Chief Jurist and Rabbi, Yihya Yitzhak Halevi (d. 1932), whose signatures appear together in many of the court documents and responsa issued in the first quarter of the 20th century.

In the late 19th century, he was the host to the Austrian Arabist and archeologist, Eduard Glaser, who conducted research in Yemen, and at the turn of the 20th century, he carried on a written correspondence with the Chief Rabbi of Ottoman Palestine in Jaffa, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kohen Kook.

Rabbi Qafiḥ had served as one of the chief instructors in the city's largest seat of learning (yeshiva), held then in the synagogue known as Bayt Saleḥ, until a famine in 1905, resulting from a war with the Ottoman Turks, forced the closure of the yeshiva. After being incarcerated twice by Muslim authorities in 1914, being released only in Adar of 1915, Rabbi Qafiḥ regretted his earlier reticence in not speaking out against certain ills of the community. He began to be more vociferous about the people's neglect of Halacha for more mystical matters. It was around this time that he founded the Dor Deʻah movement in Orthodox Judaism, to counter the influence of Lurianic Kabbalah and restore the rational approach to Judaism, such as is represented by the thought of Maimonides and Sa'adiah Gaon, and to encourage strict adherence to the Halakha as formulated in the Mishneh Torah.

Unto Rabbi Yiḥya Qafiḥ is attributed the statement: “By trying to satisfy everyone's opinion, sometimes you do not fulfill the obligations of any!”

Controversy

The work for which Rabbi Qafiḥ is most well known is Milḥamot HaShem (Wars of the Lord, which takes the same name as earlier books). In it he argues that the Zohar is not authentic and that attributing its authorship to the Tannaitic sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai is to besmirch him. Milḥamot HaShem maintains that the theology of Lurianic Kabbalah promotes the worship of Zeir Anpin (the supposed creative demiurge of God) and the Sephirot and, in doing so, is entirely idolatrous and irreconcilable with the historically pure monotheism of Judaism. This stance met with much opposition, and led the Rabbi to become engaged in a respectful correspondence with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine, who was known for his emphasis on mysticism). Rabbi Qafiḥ sent a copy of Milḥamot HaShem to Jerusalem in hopes of expediting its printing there, so that in the event additional objections would be raised he would have the opportunity to respond while still alive, but delays and a prolonged printing process resulted in his death soon after its printing and editing.

Some contemporary Rabbis of the Haredi camp, such as Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, have echoed condemnation of Rabbi Qafiḥ's work as heretical Others, such as Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, have expressed disagreement with Rabbi Yihyah Qafih's work but maintained that such views are not heretical. Others yet, such as Rabbis Eliyahu Dessler and Gedaliah Nadel, maintain that it is acceptable to believe that the Zohar was not written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and that it had a late authorship.

Legacy

Rabbi Yiḥyah Qafiḥ is known to have "spent huge sums in order to recover manuscripts, even fragments of manuscripts of his [Maimonides] works." Rabbi Yiḥyah Qafiḥ's grandson, Rabbi Yosef Qafiḥ, was a prominent leader of the Yemenite community in Israel and perpetuated part of his grandfather's life's work by publishing corrected and translated versions of texts (see his published works), including all of Maimonides’ Jewish works based on centuries-old manuscripts rescued and preserved by his grandfather.