But the ordinary Jew has not been affected by the Rav.
Those who get drunk on the Rav’s theories are intellectuals who love theories.
Yes, the Rav ordained more rabbis than anybody in history.
But the Rav did not make much practical difference in anything.
The Rav today is more popular than he ever was in his lifetime.
I’m cribbing this from Dr. Marc B. Shapiro’s first lecture on Rabbi Zvi Pesach Frank (for Torah in Motion).
Dr. Shapiro says the Chatam Sofer is the most important Orthodox rabbi of the past 200 years, but that Ovadia Yosef in the most important rabbi of the past few generations and the most important Sephardic rabbi since the Shulchan Aruch (15th Century).
Every Jew on the street in Israel knows who Ovadia Yosef is. There have been nine books on Ovadiah Yosef.
