Translations by Asher Grinner

For her bat mitzvah, my daughter Lilah wanted to give back to the community by undertaking a mitzvah project. She recognized a need for more resources at her school to help students and teachers celebrate the full diversity of the Jewish people. So she decided to raise funds for books that highlight the rich histories and cultures of Sephardi Jews and Jews from the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, ensuring these heritages are better represented in her school’s library.

I was excited to see Lilah’s passion for this project, not just because representation of all Jewish communities matters, but also because these books help teach important Jewish values that Sephardi and Mizrahi communities have cherished for generations and still hold dear today — values like belonging, unity, and an open-minded legal approach for the sake of Klal Yisrael — which are meaningful for all Jews to learn from and carry forward.

As part of our joint preparation for this project, Lilah and I began researching books and resources to create an essential reading list for her school library. We found great resources on JIMENA’s site as well as from PJ Library. To support our efforts, I also reached out to my former boss, Eli Bareket, CEO of Alliance Israélite Universelle – Kol Israel Haverim. Kol Israel Haverim is a leading educational non-profit dedicated to promoting equality, empowerment, and Jewish identity through education, primarily within disadvantaged communities in Israel. I worked there as part of the Memizrach Shemesh program, where we used texts from Sephardi and Mizrahi rabbis as tools for community organizing and identity development.

At their core was a desire for unity: to bring Jews together, to limit conflict, and to strengthen the Jewish people. These ideals remain a powerful guide for shaping a school culture grounded in compassion, wisdom, and connection. These are values that are so integral to any Jewish community and especially to a school. ”

This is a moment of true nachat (pride and joy), seeing the chain of Jewish tradition in action as my daughter shows me that I’ve passed something meaningful down to her. I grew up between Oakland and Jerusalem, the child of an Ashkenazi mother and a Kurdish Israeli father. My father, Nissim Zaken, z”l, always reminded us of our Kurdish roots and made sure I never forgot where we came from.

Still, most of my Jewish education took place in institutions where Sephardi heritage wasn’t part of the conversation. My deeper connection to those roots really began when I started working at Memizrach Shemesh, where I was introduced to the rich world of Sephardi rabbinic texts. Since then, I’ve been excited to bring these beautiful teachings into the American Jewish community, often teaching and translating the ones that move me most.

Working at Memizrach Shemesh was soul-connecting. I felt love from my teachers and imagined the love of the Sephardi hahamim (sages) when I studied their texts. The learning made me feel strong, a link in the chain of tradition. Instead of the negative stereotypes about my father’s heritage (such as ana Kurdi, a self-deprecating term and common stereotype in Israeli society referring to the “stupidity” of Kurdish Jews), I was learning in a place of discovery and honor, giving voice to the richness and depth of the heritages of Jews from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Eli recommended this list of essential works for a school expanding its Sephardi library:

• HaRav Eliyahu HaCohen, Meil Tzedakah, Coat of Tzedakah
• HaRav Haim David HaLevi, Kitzur Shulhan Aruh-Mekor Haim, Abbreviated Shulhan Aruh
• HaRav Haim Palachi, Moed Le-Kol Hai, A Time for Every Living Thing
• HaRav Ovadia Yosef, Anaf Etz Avot, Branches of the Tree of the Fathers
• HaRav Yitzhak Yosef, Yalkut Yosef, Yosef’s Collection
• HaRav Yosef Haim (Ben Ish Hai), Derashot Le-Torah, Sermons on the Torah
• HaRav Yosef Messas, Nahalat Avot, Inheritance of the Fathers

These books are a composite of values that Lilah’s school library can incorporate into student learning. They represent the worldview of the Sephardi rabbis who lived in communities without denominations, where every Jew was an essential part, no matter their status or level of observance. They showed deep care for those experiencing poverty, always striving to protect dignity and spare from embarrassment. They believed that Torah should be engaged with the world, and that general knowledge — not just religious knowledge — was a necessary part of every Jew’s life.

At their core was a desire for unity: to bring Jews together, to limit conflict, and to strengthen the Jewish people. These ideals remain a powerful guide for shaping a school culture grounded in compassion, wisdom, and connection. These are values that are so integral to any Jewish community and especially to a school.

I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite sources from the rabbis on this list and share how they are requisite reading in any Jewish school, not just in a Sephardi bet midrash.

Blessings for All New Things
HaRav Yosef Haim (Ben Ish Hai), Derashot Le-Torah, Sermons on the Torah
sefaria.org/Ben_Ish_Hai

To start the list, we go back to 19th-century Iraq. Rabbi Yosef Haim, widely known as the Ben Ish Hai — a title derived from his renowned work of the same name — was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1834. From a young age, he studied with his father, Haham Eliyahu, and later with his maternal uncle, Haham David Hai Ben Meir. At age 25, when his father passed away, the community saw him as the next rabbi. Throughout his life, Rabbi Yosef Haim sought to connect people from all segments of the Jewish world to Torah study. This commitment is evident in his derashot (sermons) and responsas (legal decisions), which addressed diverse audiences and featured stories, fables, and values designed to resonate with a broad range of people.

In his commentary on parashat Re’eh, in the book of Deuteronomy, Rav Yosef Haim explains:

Our Rabbis said that when buying or making new clothes, one blesses “Sheheheyanu” since they are happy and they thank Hashem for granting them this joy…. Even if one buys a used item, if it brings them happiness, they recite “Sheheheyanu,” and the same applies to a garment given as a gift, even if it’s not new; they bless it for the joy it brings them.

According to Rav Yosef Haim, the Sheheheyanu blessing should be said not just when you purchase or receive a new item, but also when you purchase or receive a used clothing item. While we could simply say that the Ben Ish Hai was just into thrifting, I think there is more to this text. Who purchases used clothing? Those who are not able to afford brand new clothes or those who are less fortunate.

Jewish schools and communities must have a heightened awareness about belonging and inclusion. Rav Yosef Haim reminds us that all students should be encouraged to acknowledge and celebrate their new things, even if it means doing so with a used piece of clothing, a second-hand book, or an old backpack. This is important, because it preserves the dignity and honor of all community members, and the indirect way that Rav Yosef Haim writes about those less fortunate, or those “receiving used items,” models how he wants us to treat them within our community or school. This message of equality and compassion for those who may be disadvantaged is essential for a school library to include.

Open Houses/Open Hearts
HaRav Yosef Messas, Nahalat Avot, Inheritance of the Fathers

HaRav Yosef Messas was born in Morocco but served for many years as the rabbi of the Algerian city of Tlemcen. He later moved to Israel and served as Haifa’s chief Sephardi rabbi. He is known for his open-minded interpretations of Jewish law and for challenging many norms around women’s religious practice, from supporting the idea of women’s prayer and Torah learning groups to challenging the tradition of women’s head coverings.

In Nahalat Avot, his commentary on Pirke Avot, Rav Messas shares an idea about Mishnah Avot 1:5 in the name of Yose ben Yohanan, “And May your house be open to all.” He writes:

So that each person can find comfort during their personal challenges: someone hungry will find food, someone poor will find tzedakah, someone hard-pressed will find a loan, someone sick will find healing, and so on. So that we don’t come to a point where people are suffering from all of these terrible things at once, the most important thing is that Jewish households will offer at least one thing to support those in need. […] In the town of Drokart, there was a poor woman who would wake up every morning and heat her stove. She would lend hot water and coals to her neighbors. Once there was a fire in this city, and she and her neighbors were saved because of this mitzvah. Because, even though they were poor, their homes were “open to all,” and they gave what they could.

Every Jewish household, no matter status or wealth, can give. Like the woman in Drokart, if all you have is hot water and coals, that is what you give. Our giving can also be connected to the type of individual needs we see in our communities.

For a Jewish day school, this idea can be relevant in so many ways. As teachers, our classrooms can be open to all. We can give individual support to each student. We see each student, their strengths and weaknesses, their diverse heritages, their movements, and their voices. Rav Yosef Messas reminds us of this communal responsibility that all individuals within the community hold.

Holders of the Love
Abbreviated Shulhan Aruh/Kitzur Shulhan Aruh-Mekor Haim by HaRav Haim David HaLevi

Throughout my career as a Jewish educator, I have had the opportunity to be inspired by so many different educators and Jewish leaders. One woman, Cheryl Sklan of the Masorti Movement in the United Kingdom, taught me about the role of love in Jewish education. She used to say: “When you are working with children at camp or school, you have to find one thing about each of them that you love. Sometimes that is easy, sometimes it is harder. But you have to do it. As an educator, you are a ‘holder of the love.’”

HaRav Haim David HaLevi also writes about this idea. Born in 1924 in British Mandate Palestine to parents who immigrated from Turkey, Rabbi Haim David Halevi grew up in Jerusalem. He studied at the Porat Yosef Yeshiva with fellow yeshiva student Ovadia Yosef. He served as chief Sephardi rabbi of Rishon Le’Zion and later became the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. He won the Israel Prize for Torah literature in 1997.

HaRav Haim David HaLevi writes about the importance of love in his book Mekor Haim haShalem, his abbreviated version of the Shulhan Aruh. He shares:

There is no doubt that even when the people of Israel keep all the mitzvot in the Torah, they are absent from Torah in its entirety if they do not hold this mitzvah: “Love your fellow as yourself.” Since the purpose and goal of the mitzvot is to better and rejuvenate us, this will not be achieved without true love between all parts of the nation. And this is what the rabbis meant when they said: “Why was the Second Temple destroyed? It was destroyed because there was wanton hatred during that period.” And this does not require any explanation — when a nation lacks love, its foundations collapse, and there is no value for holding all the other mitzvot.

Religious life and Jewish law can sometimes lead us to a technical mindset when we focus on the different aspects of each mitzvah. In the process, we risk forgetting the deeper purpose of the mitzvot. When we lose sight of that purpose, we lose the essence of what it truly means to be Jewish.

In other words, observing the laws of kashrut and Shabbat means little if we fail to treat others with kindness and respect, especially those who may not follow the mitzvot in the same way we do. The message here is not only about your immediate community but about the entire people of Israel. How do we see one another? How do we honor each other, even when we differ?

In our Jewish schools and communities, these teachings can help strengthen a sense that each student and community member has a place and a voice. Especially now, as we face the rising challenges of antisemitism and strive to connect across differences in an increasingly divided world, this library, rich with the values and wisdom of Sephardi sages, offers a guiding light. It shows us how to build communities of true belonging, where everyone is invited to bless their new beginnings, where homes are open to all, where love is a foundation of communal life, and where more voices are seen, heard, and represented.

Visit the Sephardi & Mizrahi Education Toolkit for access to Ben Ish Hai and Yalkut Yosef.