Rabbi David Shalom Batzri, one of Israel’s leading kabbalists and the longtime head of Jerusalem’s Yeshivat Hashalom, died on Friday at the age of 85.
Batzri collapsed at his home on Rabbi Landau Street in Bnei Brak on Friday morning, hours before the start of the Sukkot holiday.
Emergency medical personnel found him unconscious, without a pulse and not breathing, and performed prolonged resuscitation efforts. His pulse was restored and he was evacuated in critical condition to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan, where he later died.
Batzri had experienced health problems in recent years but continued teaching Kabbalah, receiving visitors and conducting prayers and traditional kabbalistic rituals for individuals and the wider community.
Born in Jerusalem on Aug. 7, 1941—the 14th of Av, 5701—Batzri was the son of Rabbi Yosef Batzri and Victoria Batzri.
His family had deep roots in the Iraqi Jewish rabbinical tradition. His mother was a descendant of Rabbi Yosef Chaim (1835–1909) of Baghdad, widely known as the Ben Ish Chai, and of Chaim’s main student, the renowned kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Fatiyah (1859–1942).
Batzri studied at Jerusalem’s Porat Yosef Yeshiva, one of the foremost institutions of Sephardic Torah scholarship, under leading rabbis including Rabbi Ezra Attiya. He also studied under Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka and Rabbi Salman Mutzafi.
He later founded Yeshivat Hashalom on Tachkemoni Street in Jerusalem, naming it in honor of Rabbi Shalom Sharabi, the 18th-century Yemenite kabbalist known by the acronym Rashash.
The yeshivah became a prominent center for the study of Kabbalah, including the writings of Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Zohar and the teachings of the Rashash.
Batzri emphasized the kabbalistic intentions associated with Jewish prayer and also conducted traditional tikkunim, or spiritual rectification ceremonies, including pidyon nefesh (“redemption of the soul”), as well as special prayers for healing, marriage and domestic harmony.
Beyond the yeshivah, Batzri was a prominent public speaker who traveled throughout Israel delivering religious lectures and encouraging observance of Shabbat, Jewish family purity laws and modesty.
His son Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri is also a prominent kabbalist and teaches at Yeshivat Hashalom.
Batzri’s funeral procession was scheduled to leave Yeshivat Hashalom at 2 p.m. on Friday for the Sanhedria Cemetery.
