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The Maharsha Alfandri (1820-1930) was born in Istanbul. He served as chief rabbi in Istanbul, Damascus, and subsequently in Tsefas for 20 years. He passed away at age 110 in Yerushalayim. Many of his halachic responsa are included in his book Saba Kadisha.
It was known that the the Alfandri had very little tolerance of the charlatan rabbis, he despised them, and thus we find many rabbis boasting that they were an exclusion to this, and were accepted graciously.
Here's a translation of a transcript of what Saba Yisroel tells over about the Alfandri:
Rav Alapandri.
I was inferior to everyone. I was a
simple person and inferior to everyone. The Rav Alapandri, he lived
in Safed, he came to Tiberius to immerse in the hot springs of
Tiberius, so I descended from the Yeshiva, I went down and said to
the Rav Alpandri, “I have a request from you, I would like to serve
you.” He was a world renown genius (Gaon), yes. He had
allocution. And so strong! He heard how I say Likutay Tefilos, so
afterwards I went and came to his room and
I said to him, “What would you like? What do you need?” He said,
“I want to serve you! That's what I want!” (he was a man of
truth?) Yes. He was very old, and he was strong, very heroic, he
didn't ask all the rabbis, he said to me, “I heard about Rabbi
Nachman, I heard great things, that he was a big genius, but what I
hear from you? I did not know from this at all! Now? I want to serve
you!” he was my neighbor in Safed (you lived in Safed?) no. I got
married in Safed, he was living in Safed and I was born in Tiberius
and I lived in Tiberius, all of Tiberius cried, they cried over me,
my father and my mother, they cried, “What? It is impossible to be
a Breslov Chasid! What is this? We don't want Breslov!” And that's
how everyone was, all the scholars and everyone, “He became
Breslov? Breslov?! Breslov?!...” I, I was lower than everyone, I
didn't have any mind, and any intellect, and any...nothing, no
elocution and not anything, mamash nothing... and our holy master
writes to me (in the Petek), “My student, my precious student”...
Chacham Bashi [Turkish title: Head of
the Wise Men], Rav Shlomo, the genius of the Sephardim.
Once Rav Shlomo, the genius of the
Sephardim, came to Tiberius. 'Chacham Bashi', he was an old man and a
genius, 'Alapandri', and he was a genius and a tzadik, he was single,
he didn't have a wife. He came to Tiberius, and I went in to him by
the Sephardim, I went in to him, and I requested him, “I want the
merit to serve you...” Him... nu. I asked him, and he was a genius,
nu, let it be like that! He agreed! He was a genius and he heard
about Rabbainu, Rabbi Nachman, that he was a genius and a tzadik.
What happiness needs to be ours, that we have merited in this world
to be close to Rabbainu! We don't know what this is!
There were some greats that thought
that they were Messiah, that they, that they, and they, and they! And
just them! They spoke in such a way. But this was not correct! This
that they spoke, they were mistaken! Yes! Just our holy master! By
him there is no mistake! What he revealed... such words... such
words, every word clarified! The law, as given to Moses at Sinai!
Another talk about Rav Alapandri.
In Safed there lived an old man, a
great old man named, he was called the Rav Alapandri, he was a great
man renown in the whole world, do you know about this? (I didn't hear
of him) You didn't hear of him? How is that? Nu, you are a young man
and I am old, and I heard from this Rav in Tiberius that he is a man
of great genius and very wise and with great fear of Heaven, he was
very tough against the rabbis that he understood were not in order,
so he would not pay attention to that they were rabbis, he said the
truth, he lived, he lived in Safed, and he would get up every night,
every night at midnight, and cry before H”Y about the destruction
of the Temple, yes. He was a genius, but he had great fear of Heaven,
and he would get up every night at midnight, and cry a lot before
H”Y, with tears. I was not in Safed, but I heard of him, and he
came in the winter to Tiberius in order to use the baths of the hot
springs of Tiberius. So the Sephardim all knew that he is a great
man, so they gave him a room by them, by the Sephardim, at Rabbi Meir
Baal Hanais, and they gave him a room. And I heard that Rav Alapandri
was to be found by the Sephardim, so I went to him, this was after I
had become a Breslover, after the passing of Rabbi Yisroel
[Karduner], after Rabbi Yisroel passed away. And I went in to him,
and I requested him, “I want the merit to attend him.” And he saw
that this was with a whole heart, yes, he had understanding, so he
gave me permission to attend to him. I took off his shoes, and I made
his bed, I brought him tea, any service... a few days passed, and I
prayed once by the Sephardim, and I prayed like that which I saw by
Rabbi Yisroel, prayer, and I also said Likutay Tefilos and Psalms
with tears and arousal with fervor, and he heard in his room, so when
I finished the prayers and I came to serve him, and I asked him what
he needs, what he wants, tea or anything that he needs, so he said to
me, “I don't need anything, I want... I don't want that you... that
you should serve me!” He didn't know that I was a Breslover, that
I... he just heard the sound of the prayers, so he said to me, “ I
don't want that you should serve me!” I was 22 years old, 23 years
old, and he was an old man, and such a genius, so this was not... how
he, such a genius and I, simple, I, a simple kollel (yeshiva for
married men) man, there was a bond between us, and I saw that he
discussed with me some issues and my assessment concurred with his
view, and he had some matters that he needed to take counsel with
other people, and he took counsel with me, and I told him the truth,
so/then he understood that I am a man of truth, and say the truth,
and there was a bond between us, and he asked me, “How is your
livelihood?” So I said, “I am a member of the Yeshiva, I learn in
Yeshiva.” “And how is your livelihood? Do you have a livelihood?”
He took interest and asked me. So I told him, “I learned in
Yeshiva, and after I became a Breslov Chasid they didn't want to
retain me in the Yeshiva, a Breslover, maybe he will make others,
maybe, maybe... they didn't want, but even still they couldn't reject
me, I learned there for a long time, from bar mitzva, so they gave me
less than all the members of the yeshiva, I received less than them.”
So I told him that my life was such, with great poverty, and I told
him that they give me less than the others because I am from the
Breslov Chasidim. He was with this... after some days, the Ashkenaz
rabbis came to visit him, and they wanted to take him to visit in
their yeshiva, in the yeshiva by Rabbi Meir Baal Hanais of the
Ashkenazim, and he, they came to him, there was the Rav and the
manager (gabbai) of the yeshiva, and another person, there
were three, and they came to him like... with honor and reverence,
and they spoke with him, and he said to them, “Why do you give this
man less? He doesn't have a livelihood!” So they said to him, “He
is a worthy man, he is a man who serves Hashem, but he is saying
always Psalms, prayers, this isn't a member of a yeshiva. Yeshiva is
just for the intellectual, but he doesn't keep the schedule of the
yeshiva, he goes between the mountains, and he is a kosher man, but
not a member of a yeshiva. What we give him is just, just from the
side of kindness, that we have mercy on him.” Nu, so he, so he got
angry at them, and said to them that “his Psalms are more important
by H”Y than your intellectualism, from your intellectuals!” Oy,
oy, oy the whole time... and I went down to him every day, but I did
not merit to serve him, because he did not want, by no means, and
he... and I saw that he, when I told him that I was from the Breslov
Hasidim, that I told him what I suffer, he said to me, “A Breslov
Hasid! This is something very precious! This is something very
important!” Yes, that's what he said. Nu, honor to the Rav, to the
Rav that came to him, nu, in the end, because he told them, so they
gave me a raise of half a lira a month, after he spoke to them. Oy,
oy, oy, a great man, world renown, a genius, holy, and the Rav
Alapandri... apparently.... Who said, “I don't know”? You are
young, and maybe he was around before you were born, but till today
his name (reputation), he is very great the Rav Alapandri, look into
it, ask maybe the Sephardim about the Rav Alapandri, he made many
books, and he was a man famous in the Land of Israel and in the whole
world....
Na Nach Nachma Nachman MeUman!
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