1906) by loyal Yemeni forces under Imām Yaḥyā Ḥamīd ad-Dīn (1904—1948) in their bid to oust the Ottoman Turks who then controlled the city.

[8] As most scholars of his generation, Yiḥya Yitzḥak Halevi was trained in the laws of ritual slaughter of livestock such as prescribed in Jewish law and when later tasked with the public affairs and oversight of the community, he would ordain qualified ritual slaughterers of domesticated animals throughout the country, and periodically inspected them.

In 1902, at the young age of thirty-five, he was — on the basis of his scholarship and his counseling ability[10] — one of the candidates for replacing the lately deceased Nasi and chief jurist of the rabbinic court at Sana'a, Rabbi Shelomo (Suleiman) Ṣaleh.

[11] The heads of the community in Sana'a came together at the synagogue known as Bayt Saleh, which served at that time as the general seat of learning and of halakhic determination, in order to select a replacement.

The eldest of their Rabbis, the honorable Mori Hayim b. Yosef Qorah, a man then aged eighty, was he that was to draw the lot.

Mori Hayim Qorah then proceeded to recite one of the Psalms, wherein are to be found the words, "Thou maintainest my lot" (Ps.

Neither would the assembly cast lots again, a fourth time, so there remained in the Court at Sana'a only one, a certain Rabbi Ibrahim, the son of R. Sāleh, to adjudicate as judge, seeing that he was singularly qualified to pass judgment by himself.

[14] Spurred on by the news that the Imam would be returning to Sana'a, one of the first things Rabbi Yiḥya Yitzḥak did upon assuming the role of community leader was to appoint a new rabbinic court, whose former members had mostly perished in the famine of 1905.

When the Imām Yaḥyā Ḥamīd ad-Dīn entered the city, he was greeted in full-force by the Jewish community who had purchased an ox from the monies donated to the public coffer and given it to the Imam as a welcoming present, which was duly slaughtered and eaten by his entourage.

When the Ottoman Turks returned to capture the city in 1907, Rabbi Yiḥya Yitzḥak Halevi remained in favor with the ruling power and concerned himself with public affairs during the day, and with making ritual slaughter on domesticated animals in the evening.

[18] It was during the Turkish occupation of Sana'a that Rabbi Yiḥya Yitzḥak Halevi was conferred the honorary title of Ḥakham Bāshī (the Sage dignitary).

[22] The Chief Rabbi's first test came in 1920, one week before Passover, when he was called upon to intervene in the release of Jewish silversmiths who had conspired with the rebellious elder son of the king who had employed them in minting coins under his own name, in defiance of his father, and were all arrested.

Rabbi Yiḥya Yitzḥak Halevi appealed to the king on their behalf, who permitted them to be released in time to observe the upcoming holiday with their families.

When the Imam returned to Sana'a, some of the Muslims had come to him complaining that Jewish wives customarily go forth in the public domain without an adequate covering over their heads, viz.

The Imām, being a defender of the Jews, requested from Mori Yiḥya Yitzḥak to do what he could about the matter, in order to bring to silence those who railed on the Jewish custom.

Mori Yiḥya Yitzḥak called for a consultation about the matter, and laid out before them the complaint of the Muslims, and the request that had come to him from the king, Yahyā.

During the consultation, it was agreed upon to make an edict that Jewish women would henceforth go out into the public domain while their faces veiled out of modesty.

Rabbi Yiḥya al-Qafiḥ, the headmaster, had pressed that Jewish students be taught arithmetic and the rudiments of the Arabic and Turkish languages and writing, and that the neo-kabbalistic books which espouse to Lurianic Kabbalah and the Zohar be diminished from the curriculum because of a concern that it inaccurately promotes pluralism/dualism in the godhead.

fatwa) called out for the continuation of established Jewish customs and norms heretofore practised in Yemen, and that no party to the dispute is allowed to coerce others into changing his course of behavior or tradition.

At Rabbi Yiḥya Yitzḥak Halevi's suggestion, the king of Yemen (Imam Yahya) settled a long-standing dispute between the Jewish community and the application of laws defined by the local Waqf, or mortmain property.

In the winter of 1918, the Imam Yahya ordered that those Jewish residents who were able to provide legal documents proving that they had purchased their property would be made exempt from re-purchasing such property, while all other Jewish residents were to pay for their land, half of which payment would be given to the Waqf (Islamic trust), and half of which to the Imam.

[34] His resolve and determination, and his nurturing of good ties with the ruling monarch, helped solidify his command and hegemony over the Jewish people throughout Yemen, and had been given the power to punish offenders by imprisonment.

Because of his tireless efforts on their behalf, they gave to him the time-honored title, borrowed from a biblical verse, "The angel who has delivered me from all evil."