Sadqa Hussein

Hakham Sadqa Hussein
Position	Rabbi
Synagogue	Shemesh Sedaqah Synagogue
Began	1929
Ended	1961
Successor	Rabbi Yaakov Mutzafi
Personal details
Born	February 3, 1876 Baghdad, Ottoman Iraq
Died	February 17, 1961 Jerusalem, Israel
Yahrtzeit	1 Adar 5721
Buried	Sanhedria Cemetery
Denomination	Haredi Judaism
Alma mater	Midrash Bet Zilkha

Sadqa Hussein (Hebrew: צדקה חוצין; in Ashkenazi Hebrew: Tzadka Chutzin; February 3, 1876 – February 17, 1961) was a Sephardi dayan, mohel, and spiritual leader to the Iraqi Jewish community in Iraq and Israel. He taught thousands of students in Baghdad, and led the Iraqi expatriate community in Jerusalem. He was the founder and rosh mesivta of the Shemesh Sedaqah Synagogue in the Geula neighborhood of Jerusalem.

Sadqa Hussein was born in Baghdad, Ottoman Iraq, to Rabbi Moshe Hussein, and grew up in a prosperous family. He was a fifth-generation descendant of the 18th-century rabbi Sadqa Bekhor Hussein, the author of the halakhic responsa Sedaqah U-Mishpat. In his youth, he studied at Midrash Bet Zilkha, the foremost yeshiva of its day, under the tutelage of Rabbi Elisha Dangour, Av Beit Din of Baghdad. He later studied under the Ben Ish Hai, who would count him among his favorite students. Hussein's financial situation allowed him to pursue his studies uninterrupted, allowing him to achieve a high degree of Torah scholarship.

Hussein founded Midrash Talmud Torah, the community heder in Baghdad, which accepted hundreds of children regardless of their parents' ability to pay tuition. Funding for the school was arranged by way of a luxury tax that was imposed on the sale of meat. During his years in Baghdad, Hussein personally taught upwards of 4,000 children. Every evening he gave a shiur in halakha to householders that went four or five hours. From those years he earned the title "Hakham Sadqa", which he was known by the rest of his life.

...
Wikipedia