Hacham Sliman David Sasson


A Short Tribute

Hacham Sliman David Sasson, son of Hacham David Sasson, was born in London on 4 Elul 5675 (1905) on a Sabbath day. He studied with private tutors at the home of his grandmother, Freicha Sasson, who was a Torah scholar in her own right, well versed in Bible, Talmud and Halacha. As a child he spoke Arabic with his father and grandmother, German with his mother, and Hebrew or Yiddish with his tutors.

In 1924 he visited the Land of Israel with his parents, where they met Hacham Bechor Quaknine from Tiberias, who returned with them to London to become Hacham Sliman David Sasson’s teacher. In addition to religious studies, Hacham Sliman David Sasson studied mathematics, physiology and other sciences, and would keep up to date by reading scientific journals.

Hacham Sliman David Sasson was ordained to the rabbinate by Rabbi Samuel Yitzhak Hillman, Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler and Hacham Shemtob Gaguine.

In 1939, during the Second World War, he helped his father in his work rescuing Jewish refugees who had reached England from Germany.

Hacham Sliman David Sasson immigrated to Israel In 1971 and settled in Jerusalem. He founded the movement for the renewal of Babylonian Jewry and for the preservation of the Babylonian Jewish heritage.

Hacham Sliman David Sasson passed away on 7 Sivan 5745 (1985) and was buried in Jerusalem. Most of his writings have remained in manuscript form. A collection of his original Torah commentary can be found in the book, Natan Hochma Le’Shlomo.

A few quotes from the Rabbi on 'Tzedakah and Healing' in which he teaches that whoever has a sense of integrity and justice, must take action
“Would you impugn My justice? Would you condemn Me that you may be right?” God reveals to Job that the basis for all his claims is that he wishes to see himself innocent; he therefore makes claims against God: Why does God let the wicked succeed? Why does He not bring them to judgment? But Job does this, perhaps unwittingly, for a particular reason. He wishes to see God as responsible, and himself as innocent – as though he has no part in all these events. However, God does not consent. God tells him, I am not your servant that I should cleanse the world of wicked people so that you may live in peace, this is not my role. I placed people like you in this world so that they fight for justice and law. If you have so powerful a sense of law, integrity and justice, you are obliged to take action, and to not remain passive and shout why I don’t do anything... You are reversing the entire order of creation, this is not the order I created in my universe...I want people to be charitable and to do justice. I do not always wish to act directly. I provide people with the opportunity to take action, and if they do not, the wicked prosper, but human beings are those who are responsible for this. I want them to be responsible.
Hacham Sliman David Sasson, Natan Hochma LeShlomo, A Conversation on Job, p. 164, Jerusalem, 1989