Biographical Information

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land for close to the last 20 years of his life, died 67 years ago today - the third day of Elul.  Arutz-7 spoke today with Avraham Teitz, director of the educational museum in the Jerusalem building that originally housed the yeshiva Rav Kook founded over 70 years ago - Merkaz HaRav Kook.  Teitz said that the great rabbi's memory is being eternalized in various educational activities in the museum today, as well as in ceremonies in other cities throughout the country.  The central memorial ceremony was to be held at Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav this evening, with the participation of former Chief Rabbi Avraham Shapira.  "Increasing interest is being taken into his thought and
ideas," Teitz said.  "His is a very wide-ranging Torah philosophy, students are doing papers on it, etc."

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, chief rabbi of Brachah in the Shomron, wrote about Rav Kook in the most recent issue of B'Sheva.  Excerpts:

"His friend Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer told the famous Gaon Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky of Vilna, "We are considered G'dolim [Torah giants] up to the point that we reach his [Rav Kook's] door.  From that point, he is the only Gadol."  ….  The Kabbalist genius, the author of Leshem Shvo V'achlamah, said that no secret is hidden from him.  One of the rabbis had trouble finding sources for some Kabbalistic texts.  He turned to some important Kabbalists in Jerusalem, but they couldn't help him.  He was advised to go to Rav Kook, and he was surprised to find that the Rabbi, who was busy all day with the demands of his position as Chief Rabbi and with halakhic responsa and other communal matters, remembered the source for all
the texts…
  
"A young student who once studied in the Merkaz HaRav high school was unsure of his path.  He went to Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, of saintly blessed memory, and asked if the fact that most of the G'dolim don't take the path of Rav Kook means that maybe he should go with the majority.  Rabbi Auerbach responded, 'What are you talking about?  When Rav Kook was alive, most if not all of the G'dolim were insignificant compared to him.'  Rav Kook in fact officiated at Rabbi Auerbach's wedding, as well as at that of Rav Shalom Yosef Elyashiv, may he live a long life…

    "Above and beyond his involvement with the day-to-day duties of the Rabbinate, Rav Kook related to the issues of the generation.  He was familiar with the depths of the philosophical and social ideas of the day, and examined them in the light of Torah…  He was able to find the good point in them, and to reveal its holy source.

    "His perception was based on unification and harmony:  The Torah and all its parts, the Nation of Yisrael with all its tribes, history and all its chapters.  Only a righteous man and Torah giant like him, a man of total devotion to the One G-d, was able to comprehend everything as one, and through this to pave wonderful ways and explanations towards perfecting the world.  Many recognized his greatness, but only a few perceived that within his words could be found the perfect remedy for the problems of the generation.  He deeply understood all the forces that burst forth at that period - the Haskalah [Jewish Enlightenment], nationalism, freedom, creativity - he saw the good and bad in them, and set out the manner in which to repair them…  He hoped to help the Haskalah writers return to traditional Judaism, and he did in fact bring some of them closer, such as Bialik, Agnon, and A. Z. Rabinovitch…"