Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s wife was known as a true woman of kindness. All her neighbors knew she’d do anything she could to help them.
When she and her husband Rabbi Ovadia Yosef lived on Hannah Street in Jerusalem their financial situation somewhat improved. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef was already a rabbi in the Israel Rabbinate and they didn’t suffer from lack. However the Rabbanit would never let herself forget her neighbors some of which were less fortunate than her.
Not every home had a phone in those days, only the wealthy did. The phone in Rabbi Yosef’s house was in constant use but not because she was on the phone at all. She just told all the neighbors that anyone that needed to make a phone call could use their phone.
Her laundry machine also worked many hours of the day. Why? To do her neighbors’ laundry of course!
The Rabbanit did many kind things but her kindness also extended to spiritual kindness too. She would pray for people she didn’t know as if they were her family members. Her Tehillim (Book of Psalms) was soaked with her tears cried for many different sick people who needed to get better and other people with different troubles.
The Rabbanit once heard of a girl who couldn’t get accepted into a seminar (high school) in Northern Israel and she exclaimed, “This is not possible! It’s not possible that a daughter of Israel should not be accepted in school. The Rabbanit never saw this girl before but she worried for her as if she were her daughter!
She started calling up influential people, Knesset members and prominent rabbis and begged them: “Please see to it that this young lady gets into a seminar”. Only after this girl got into school did the Rabbanit calm down and relax.
After the Yom Kippur War a soldier that was wounded started coming back to Judaism through Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. The Rabbanit thought to herself, how can I encourage this soldier who is coming to Judaism? And she had an idea. This soldier opened a butcher shop selling meat. The Rabbanit decided that from then on she would buy her meat form this man exclusively. She would take a long walk to his store and buy her meat only from him to encourage him.
