Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Kook

Early years

Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Kook zt"l was born on 16 Elul 5625 (September 7, 1865) in Greive (today Griva), a suburb of Dvinsk in Latvia, the son of Rav Shlomo Zalman Kook. He came from staunch Chassidic and Misnagdic stock, and all his life he kept a unique blend of the mystical and the rational.

At eighteen, in 5645 (1884), he learned for a year and a half in the famed yeshiva of Volozhin. Its head, Rav Naftali Tzvi Berlin, the Netziv, held the ilui (prodigy) from Griva in high esteem. In 5646 (1886) he married Batsheva, the daughter of Rav Eliyahu Dovid Rabinowitz-Teomim (1843–1905), known as the Aderet, who was then Rav of Ponevezh and later Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim.

Rav in Zeimel and Boisk

In 5648 (1888), at the age of twenty-two, he became Rav of Zeimel (Zeimelis) in Lithuania. He also launched a short-lived monthly rabbinic journal, Itur Sofrim. In 5649 (1889), while he was in Zeimel, his first wife passed away, leaving their daughter, Frayda Chana, a year and a half old. His father-in-law, the Aderet, persuaded him to marry Raiza-Rivka Rabinowitz, the daughter of the Aderet's twin brother. She was the mother of Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, Esther Yael Kook and Batya-Miriam Ra'anan.

He also learned with the great mekubal (Kabbalist) Rav Shlomo Elyashiv (1839–1926), author of Leshem Shevo VeAchlamah. In 5654–5656 (1894–1896) he gathered thirty-eight derashos into a sefer called Midbar Shur, but the manuscript was stolen, and the sefer was published only a century later, in 1999. In 5656 (1896) he became Rav of Boisk (Bauska), Latvia. He also wrote Musar Avicha, a work of ethical reflections, which was published after his passing, in 1946.

Rav of Jaffa and Yerushalayim

On 28 Iyar 5664 (May 13, 1904), Rav Kook arrived in Eretz Yisroel. For the next ten years he served as Rav of Jaffa and the surrounding settlements. In 5665 (1905) he published the first chapters of Orot HaTeshuvah, his original thoughts on teshuvah, together with Eder HaYakar and Ikvei HaTzon. In the shemittah year, 5670 (1910), he published the halachic work Shabbos HaAretz in defense of the heter mechirah (the arrangement for selling the land). In 5674 (1913) he led a delegation of rabbonim to the settlements in the north, to encourage them and strengthen their observance.

In 5674 (1914) he traveled to Europe for the Agudas Yisroel convention in Germany. World War I suddenly broke out, and Rav Kook could not return to Eretz Yisroel. He spent a year and a half in St. Gallen, Switzerland. In early 5676 (1916) he arrived in England and served for three years, during the war, as Rav of the Machzikei HaDas congregation in London. In 1917 he published Rosh Millin, a mystical work on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

He returned to Eretz Yisroel in 5679 (1919), and in Teves 5680 (December 1919 to January 1920) he accepted the position of Chief Rabbi of Yerushalayim. Two months earlier, his twelve-year-old daughter, Esther Yael, had died tragically after falling down a flight of steps.

In 5680 (1920) his son, Rav Tzvi Yehuda Kook, edited some of his father's writings and published them as Orot, Rav Kook's best-known work. In 5681 (1921) Rav Kook established the Chief Rabbinate of pre-state Israel and became Chief Rabbi together with the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Rav Yaakov Meir. In 5684 (1924) he established the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Yerushalayim, which was unique among the yeshivos of its time in its religious philosophy and its positive attitude toward Zionism.

His outlook and teachings

Rav Kook was a thorough master of the whole of halachic, midrashic, philosophical, ethical and kabbalistic literature, and he brought that entire tradition to bear on his own time. He was perhaps the most misunderstood figure of his generation. He saw the return to Eretz Yisroel as far more than a political movement to rescue Jews from persecution. To him it was an event of extraordinary historical and theological significance. Rav Hutner once said that Rav Kook looked down on our world from great heights, and so his perspective was unique.

Rav Kook was filled above all with a sense of the Divine, and he sought to reach those who had strayed. He once cited the teaching that one should draw close with the right hand and push away with the left. He remarked that he was fully able to push away, but since there were plenty of others doing so, he took the role of the one who draws close. At the same time, he never tolerated the desecration of the Torah, as any objective student of his life and works will see.

Rav Kook envisioned the teshuvah of the whole nation, as well as that of the individual, a teshuvah that would be joyous and healing. He refused to reject a Jew for as long as he still identified as a Jew. In an exchange with his friend, admirer and opponent Rav Yaakov Dovid Willowski, he explained that every Jew has two parts: his essential nature, the pintele Yid, and the path he has chosen in using his free will. Even if the second is weak, so long as the first is not rejected, there is still hope.

He called for a spiritual renaissance in which the old would be renewed and the new made holy. His vision of teshuvah had no place for fear and dread. He looked forward to the poet of teshuvah, who would also be the poet of life, of renewal, and of the national soul waiting to be redeemed.

Rav Kook's printed works already run to more than thirty volumes, and many more remain in manuscript. Only a small part of them has been translated into English.

Later years and passing

Rav Kook passed away in Yerushalayim on 3 Elul 5695 (September 1, 1935), two weeks before his seventieth birthday.