Rabbi Yitzchak Abadi Z"TL

 Petirah of HaRav Yitzchak Abadi zt”l,  posek and marbitz Torah from Lakewood’s early years.

The levaya is scheduled to take place at 11 AM Tuesday morning at the Sons of Israel Chapel in Lakewood, 613 Ramsey Avenue. Kevurah will take place in Eretz Yisroel.

Rabbi Yitzchak Abadi was born in Venezuela. He moved with his parents to Teveria at age 2. As a child he attended school in Chaifa. His studies began in the Yishuv Hachdash in Tel Aviv, Israel and continued in Yeshivat Chevron in Yerushalayim. At 19 years old, he was sent by the Chazon Ish to study in Montreux, Switzerland. A year later the Chazon Ish sent him to study in Lakewood, New Jersey, under Rav  Aharon Kotler.

Under Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Abadi zt”l developed into a formidable talmid chacham and halachic authority and at the time emerged as one of the leading poskim of the Lakewood kehilla. After Rabbi Aharon Kotler’s petirah in 1962, he served as the community’s leading halachic authority in the 1960s–70s.

He authored a 2 volume  sefer Ohr Yitzchok on halachik matters.

 He branched out on his own in 1980, opening a halacha Kollel in Lakewood off Forest Ave.

 In 1993, Rabbi Abadi left Lakewood and transferred the Kollel to Yerushalayim's Har Nof  neighborhood. Rabbi Abadi moved back to Lakewood in 2009 and had a shul in the Miller rd area.

Rabbi Abadi was frequently consulted on complex halachic questions and has issued several innovative and controversial rulings. These include permitting the writing of a Sefer Torah using a silk-screen process, allowing the use of wigs made from Indian hair, and composing a shortened version of Birkas Hamazon based on the Rambam and other Rishonim which may be recited even as a first choice when the full text is difficult to say.

(Wikipedia)

His approach to halachic decision-making is characterized by a strong preference for lenient rulings, or kulah, drawing on the interpretations of classical authorities such as the Rambam and other Rishonim 

His son Rabbi Chaim Abadi heads the Minyan shelanu in Lakewood  other children are Yisrael, Nechama, Avraham, Aaron, Yehuda, Rivka.