Remembering the "Memory" of Maran Rav Ovadiah Yosef on His Yahrtzeit - ג' חשון

Today, Gimel Cheshvan is the yard site of Maran Gaon Ozeinu Maran Ovadia Yosef Sechat Zach LeBracha. You see behind me over my shoulder is the picture of the epic encounter of Ovadia and Moshe Feinstein. On the shelf above, you can't see it, so I brought it down. Another picture of Ovadia pouring over his forum. A In front of the camera, there's a large picture of Ovadia. >> [snorts] >> Today is a good day to remember Ovadia. Today we're going to remember Ovadia's memory. Surely Ovadia was gifted with almost a supernatural memory. He had a natural incredible memory. Nevertheless, Ovadia did not rely on his natural memory. A Avrech once came to Ovadia asking for a segulah for his zikaron. Ovadia called him into the library. He poured out He took out a Gemara. He turned to a very large Tosafos. Ovadia said, "Look at the Tosafos." Ovadia then began to recite the Tosafos by heart word for word. Ovadia says, "What do you think? I just know the Tosafos? I learned the Tosafos 200 times." It's easier to remember something if you learn it 200 times. So, an Avrech once came to Ovadia says, "Please give me a segulah for zikaron. I can't remember what I learned." So, Ovadia said, "You can't remember what How many times do you review it?" So, the student said, "Twice." Ovadia said, "You should review it at least 40 times." The Gemara brings that Reish Lakish would review 40 times. If Reish Lakish needed to review 40 times, certainly we need to review that amount. Interestingly, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef reports that Ovadia, when he made Kiddush Friday night, he would be marech by the word zikaron. Zikaron as a segulah for a zikaron. A talmid chacham once asked Rav Ovadia how he was zocheh to such a koach hazikaron. He says, "It's very obvious. It's very simple. It's an explicit pasuk. Velo tasuru acharei levavchem ve'acharei eineichem lema'an tizkeru. Don't veer after your eyes so that you remember. Guiding your eyes, controlling your eyes is a great segulah for zikaron. In fact, Rav Ovadia was renowned to be exceptionally careful what he looked at. When Rav Ovadia was serving as the Rav Harashi of Tel Aviv-Yafo and he was working as a dayan in uh Petah Tikva, Rav Ovadia was careful that he when he would travel from city to city, he would remove his glasses. And in fact, one time somebody came to visit one of the acquaintances of Rav Ovadia came to visit and he had a private audience, him and his wife with Rav Ovadia. Rav Ovadia was very careful to focus his attention not to veer off and to focus on the man standing in front of him. And they asked Rav Ovadia, "Why was he so meticulous?" He said, "What do you think? You don't think I have a yetzer hara?" So, Rav Ovadia attributed his zikaron to velo tasuru lema'an tizkeru. It's also recorded in the sefer Ma'adanei There when Rav Elazar Abuhatzeira pressured Rav Ovadia, "Please share with me the secret how you were zocheh to have such exceptional children who are muflagin baTorah." Rav Ovadia says that when he sat on the Beis Din, he would close his eyes not to look at the ba'alei dinim to see exactly uh who they were so as not to that that so that they should not be embarrassed. So Reb Aliyah was exceptionally careful in Vilna so suru he attributed his zekhara into this and he attributed his bonim muflagim to this as well. Yehi zikhro barukh.