The following story highlights Rabbi Raphael’s great modesty:
One day Chacham Raphael came to daven in a different shul to pay honor an important family that davened there. His presence and arrival were greeted with honor and respect.
When the Torah reading began the Gabbai called him up as: “May our teacher and Rav arise," adding many praises and titles such as "Ateres Rosheinu - the crown of our head, HaGaon and haDayan, haAnav - humble and tzadik righteous...”
However Chacham Raphael did not get up or move when he was called up. Everyone assumed that he had simply not heard the Gabbai’s call, so they told him that he had been called up to the Torah.
He explained softly, that although he had heard what the Gabbai had said, but that such a description did not refer to him. "The Gabbai was calling up someone else," and Rav Raphael refused to move until the Gabbai called him up again simply as Rabbi Raphael Encaoua, without any further titles or accolades, to come up to the Torah.
