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Photo: AFP
Rabbi Kaduri
Photo: AFP

Rabbi Kaduri in serious condition

Leading Kabbalah expert's condition deteriorating after being rushed to Jerusalem hospital with recurring pneumonia; rabbi connected to respirator

Leading Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri was hospitalized Sunday in an intensive care unit at a Jerusalem hospital after being diagnosed with pneumonia. Hospital officials said Rabbi Kaduri is in serious condition.

 

Later it was reported that the rabbi's condition had deteriorated and he is connected to a respirator. He also received a small dosage of sedatives.

 

However, hospital sources said on Monday that the rabbi is breathing on his own, adding that his blood pressure and pulse rate have stabilized overnight.

 


Well wishers visit the rabbi     (Photo: Yoav Galai)

 

The rabbi was released from hospital last Thursday after recovering from pneumoni, but doctors said Sunday the Kabbalist, who is 104-years-old, became ill again. His son David accompanied the popular rabbi to hospital and remains by his side.

 

“We join his family in wishing him a speedy recovery,” family friends said Sunday.

 

Kaduri started out as a modest bookbinder, and has become one of the best known Kabbalists in the country.

 

He was born in Iraq, and immigrated to Israel at the age of 17. He studied in a Jerusalem Yeshiva, and was a student of Jerusalem Kabbalists who worked in the capital at the start of the previous century, including Rabbi Salman Eliyahu, father of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu.

 

Popular spiritual leader

 

Many members of the public possess a gold or silver amulets made for them by Kaduri, who is considered an expert on making amulets.

 

In recent months, Kaduri's name was

tied to a blessing to opponents of the disengagement from Gaza, but his son later said his father believes "Gaza belongs to Palestinian." Kaduri himself surprised many followers when he offered his support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza pullout in April.

 

"If we give them a small thing and there will peace with them, we can leave Gush Katif. We can trust Sharon, he is okay. It can cede territories in Gaza," the Rabbi told an ultra-Orthodox newspaper.

 

He added: "I have no faith in the Arabs but we must have a little quiet. Sharon's government isn't so bad."

 

Recently, rumors have circulated in the ultra-Orthodox world that that the messiah has revealed himself to Rabbi Kaduri in dreams.

 

Meital Yasur-Beit Or contributed to the story

 


פרסום ראשון: 01.15.06, 15:01
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