Yiḥyah Qafiḥ (; also known as Yiḥyah ibn Shalomo el Qafiḥ and as Yahya Kapach (his Hebrew name)) (1850–1931),The exact date of death, according to Professor Aharon Gaimani, was the 11th day of the lunar month Kisleu, 5692 anno mundi, or what was equivalent to 21 November 1931 (see: Tehudah – vol. 30 (ed. Yosef Tobi), Natanya 2014, p. 83, note 1). known also as "Ha-Yashish" (English: "the Elder"), served as the Chief Rabbi of Sana'a, Yemen in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He was one of the foremost rabbinical scholars in Sana'a during that period, and an advocate of reforms in Jewish education. He was also learned in astronomy, and rabbinic astrology and Jewish classical literature.Shalom 'Uzayri, Galei-Or, Tel-Aviv 1974, p.7
Biography Yihyah Qafih was raised by his grandfather, after being orphaned of his father and mother at around the age of six. As a child, he studied Torah under the great Rabbi, R. Ḥayim Qoraḥ, his deceased mother's nephew.Avivit Levi, Holekh Tamim (2nd edition), Netanya 2015, p. 28 Later, he studied under Rabbi Yiḥya b. Yosef al-Qāreh, from whom he received his ritual-slaughtering license 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.Tehudah - volume 30, (ed. Yosef Tobi), Netanya 2014, pp. 48–54 (Hebrew) In the late 19th century, he was the host to the Austrian Arabist and archeologist, Eduard Glaser,Yosef Qafih, "Yemenite Jewry's Connections with Major Jewish Centers", in: Ascending the Palm Tree – An Anthology of the Yemenite Jewish Heritage, Rachel Yedid & Danny Bar-Maoz (ed.), E'ele BeTamar: Rehovot 2018, p. 23 The following testimony is brought down by Rabbi Yōsef Qāfiḥ (Ketavim - Collected Papers, vol. 2, Jerusalem 1989, p. 861): "The city of Ṣan‘ā’ is built at the foothill of the mountain, Jabal Nuqūm, on its west side. On the top of this lofty mountain are the ruins of a not-so-large, fortified city which bore the name of Barāš, and which tradition avers used to be a Jewish city. When I visited there in 1937, I found a few remains of large stone walls still standing upon their ruin, as well as two ritual baths that had been carved out of the rock, and also the ruins of a synagogue with the compartment that once served as the Ark (Hekhāl). The walls were made of large stones, roughly eighty cm. and higher. I did not find there engraved stones with images or with writing. However, my grandfather (Rabbi Yihya Qafih) told me that when the well-known Jewish researcher, Eduard Glaser, visited Ṣan‘ā’ in 1882, and who visited also the same area, he informed him that there were Jewish inscriptions there from the year 900 of the Seleucid Era. That is to say that in anno mundi 4349 (589 CE) Jews were already living in the town of Barāš." who conducted research in Yemen, and at the turn of the 20th century, he carried on a written correspondence with one of the chief rabbis of Ottoman Palestine in Jaffa, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kohen Kook, who later took on this role in an official capacity in 1921, in which he and his fellow jurists answered twenty-six questions posed to the Court at Sana'a.Shmuel Yavne'eli, Masa Le'Teman, Tel-Aviv 1952, pp. 187–188; 196–199 (Hebrew); Shalom ben Yiḥya Qoraḥ, Iggeret Bokhim, Beth Shemesh 1963, p. 18 (Hebrew). One of Rabbi Qafih's students who would later rise to prominence in Israel, Member of Israeli Parliament Yisrael Yeshayahu, published exchanges of correspondence between Rabbi Qafih and Rabbi Kook in his book, Shavut Teyman, Tel-Aviv 1945, pp. 212–222 (Hebrew)
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. In the spring of 1906, Rabbi Yihya Qafiḥ was confirmed by the ruling monarch as one of four representatives of the Jewish community in Sana'a, along with Harun al-Cohen, Yiḥya Yitzḥak Halevi and Yiḥya al-Abyadh. The document outlined the obligations of the Jewish community toward the Muslim State and the Poll Tax (Ar. al-jizya) assessed against every male 13 years of age and older.Shalom Gamliel, The Jews and the King in the Yemen, vol. 1-2, pp. 19-20, Jerusalem 1986 (Hebrew) In 1909, he became the headmaster of a Jewish school built by the Ottoman Turks in Sana'a, known as al-MakktabYalqut Teiman, Yosef Tobi and Shalom Seri (editors), Tel-Aviv 2000, p. 69, s.v. דרדעים (דראדעה) (Hebrew) He initiated many reforms in Jewish education, such as teaching arithmetic and geography alongside the Torah, and employing Turkish teachers in the school for teaching the Turkish language to Jewish youth. One of the failures of the school, according to Yemen's last Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Amram Qorah, was that by teaching the Turkish language, their study of Hebrew suffered, seeing that the Jewish youth had less time to fully acclimate themselves to the rules of Hebrew grammar and to the finesse of the language.Amrah Qorah, Sa'arath Teiman, Jerusalem 1988, p. 70 (p. 83 in PDF) (Hebrew) During this time, the controversy over the study of the Zohar worsened. After being incarcerated twiceShalom ben Yiḥya Qoraḥ, Iggeret Bokhim, Beth Shemesh 1963, p. 17 (Hebrew) by Muslim authorities in 1914, being released only in Adar of 1915, Rabbi Qafiḥ regretted his earlier reluctance to speak out against aspects of the community with which he disagreed. He began to be more vocally opposed to practices he perceived as folk superstition. It was around this time that he augmented the Dor Deʻah movement in Orthodox Judaism, to counter the influence of Lurianic Kabbalah, seeking to promote a more rational approaches to Judaism such those of Maimonides and Sa'adiah Gaon, and to encourage the practice of Halakha as formulated by Rambam in the Mishneh Torah. However, the innovations and textual readings enacted by Rabbi Qafih in his Beit midrash were the main cause for the schism in Sanaa's Jewish community, a schism that was fanned perpetually by "highly spirited youth."Yehiel Hibshush, Shenei Ha-meoroth, Tel-Aviv 1987, p. 199 (Hebrew) Since the Darda'im were interspersed in all the synagogues in Sana'a, the proprietors of those synagogues feared that this would lead to changes in their own rituals and customs, which they strongly opposed.Shelomo Dov Goitein, The Yemenites (History, Communal Organization, Spiritual Life), Ben-Zvi Institute, Jerusalem, 1983, p. 305 (Hebrew).
Rabbi Yiḥyah Qafiḥ was known to have "spent huge sums in order to recover manuscripts, even fragments of manuscripts of his [Maimonides'] works."Rabbi Yosef Kafach - A Life Fulfilled by Matis Greenblatt
Controversy
Background Ethnographer and historian, Shelomo Dov Goitein, gave a poignant description of the new movement in Yemen of which Hayyim Habshush was a member, and which movement in later years, after his death, had been further expanded under the charismatic leadership of Rabbi Yihya Qafih: “...He (i.e. Hayyim Habshush) and his friends, partly under European influence, but driven mainly by developments among the Yemenite Jews themselves, formed a group who ardently opposed all those forces of mysticism, superstition and fatalism which were then so prevalent in the country and strove for exact knowledge and independent thought, and the application of both to life.”Travels in Yemen (חזיון תימן, רויא אלימן ), Hayyim Habshush (ed. Shelomo Dov Goitein), Jerusalem 1941, p. 7 This same movement would later be coined the name Daradʻah by Rabbi Yihya Yitzhak Halevi, a word that is an Arabic broken plural made-up of the Hebrew words Dör Deʻoh, which means "Generation of Reason."Shalom 'Uzayri, Galei-Or, Tel-Aviv 1974 (Hebrew), p. 15
Rabbi Qafiḥ identified a strong superstitious influence in Yemen which he saw as contrary to Orthodox Judaism. For example, his grandson Rabbi Yosef Qafih related one of many Yemenite customs for "חינוך הבית" whereby they would bake plain bread without salt and prepare "the table of appeasement."Yemenite-Arabic: מַידַת אַלנִיִיֵה. (Hebrew: שולחן הריצוי.) Compare Isaiah 65:11. Inviting more than 10 children aged seven or eight who waited outside, they set the table, scattering thin-ash upon it; crumbled the plain bread into bits, placing them upon the table holding the ashes; and exited the kitchen stating, to the demons (Hebrew: שדים), "this is your portion."Yemenite-Arabic: הַדֵ'א קַסמַכֻם. (Hebrew: זה חלקכם.) Shortly thereafter they would abruptly open its doors, whereupon the children bursted in, grabbing the saltless pieces and eating them. Rabbi Yiḥya Qafiḥ sharply opposed these minhagim being of the opinion that, in addition to the stupidity of the matter,Hebrew original: שלדעתו נוסף לטיפשות שבדבר they are Biblically forbidden because of darkhei haEmori.Halikhoth Teiman (1963), p. 202. See also Guide for the Perplexed, Part III, Chapter 46, footnote 22 in Rabbi Kapach's edition.
Correspondence with Rav Kook In a letter addressed to Rabbi Avraham Isaac Kook, the chief Rabbi of Mandate Palestine, Rabbi Yihya Qafih argued that the mystical ideas presented in Kabbalistic literature contradict his understanding of Judaism as a rational philosophical and legalistic system. Rav Kook refuted these concerns in his reply, defending the Zohar and requesting that Qafih revert from his position.Letter by R. Kook to R. Qafich, 26 Tevet 5691/January 15, 1931, published in Maamarei HaRAYH, p. 519
Milḥamot Hashem 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) and which he began writing in 1914 (published in Jerusalem, 5691 [1930/1931]). 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 argues that Kabbalstic concepts such as the emanation of sefirot and partzufim muddied the pure monotheism of Judaism. This stance met with much opposition, and led the Rabbi to become engaged in correspondence with Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandate Palestine, who was known for his engagement with mysticism).Tohar Hayiḥud - The Oneness of G-d in its Purity p. 40. 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.Shalom ben Yiḥya Qoraḥ, Iggeret Bokhim, Beth Shemesh 1963, p. 18 (Hebrew) Some Rabbis of the Haredi camp, such as Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, have echoed condemnation of Rabbi Qafiḥ's work as heretical.Tshuvos Derech Emunah , p. 30. Others, such as Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, have expressed disagreement with Rabbi Yihyah Qafih's work but maintained that such views are not heretical.שאלות ותשובות מעין אומר חלק א, chapter 7, siman צג. Yet others, such as Rabbis Eliyahu Dessler and Gedaliah Nadel, expressed agreement and maintained that it is acceptable to believe that the Zohar was not written by Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and that it had a late authorship.An Analysis of the Authenticity of the Zohar (2005), p. 39, with "Rav E" and "Rav G" later identified by the author as Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler and Rabbi Gedaliah Nadel, respectively (Rabbi Dr. Marc Shapiro in Milin Havivin Volume 5 , Is there an obligation to believe that Rebbe Shimon bar Yochai wrote the Zohar?, p. יב [PDF page 133]):