Yiḥye Qafeh

Orphaned as a child, Yiḥye Qafeh (Yeḥieh Kafaḥ, Qāfiḥ) was reared by his grandfather in San’a, Yemen, and received a traditional education. Trained as a goldsmith, he devoted his time outside his trade to studying and teaching, reading classical Jewish scholarship alongside Haskalah literature. He wrote several responsa on halakhic questions directed to the bet din (rabbinical court) of San’a and corresponded with prominent figures outside Yemen, notably Rav Abraham Isaac Kook and Hillel Zeitlin. Qafeh pushed reforms in Jewish life in Yemen at his bet midrash; moving away from mystical approaches to Jewish texts toward philosophical investigation, he and other Yemenite Jewish intellectuals of similar views later constituted the Darda’im (Heb., Dor De‘ah) movement, which advocated rationalist and anti-kabbalah views. In 1914, rabbinic leaders in Jerusalem excommunicated Qafeh for his renunciation of kabbalah, which he loudly proclaimed in his short book Milḥamot Hashem (The Wars of the Lord). This schism is still felt in many Yemenite Jewish communities, where Darda’im are treated as heretics.