Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen and also the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the Eretz Israel or simply known by the short nickname Rabbi Kook (by the way, sometimes in the particular community that continues his path he is called - the Rai'a or Maran Harbi or Rabbi Zatzal). Rabbi Avraham Kook is also considered in his rank as the founder of religious Zionism. He spent 70 years of his life, almost half of which were in his beloved land of Israel. Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook was born on the 16th of Elul 1865 in the town of Gariva in Russia (today in Latvia) to his father Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Kook, a graduate of the Volzhin yeshiva. Rabbi Kook was born from a union between dissidents and Hassidim: his father was a dissident while his mother came from the Chabad community. The rabbi grew up in the virtues of the Torah (in his adulthood he studied at the Volozhin Yeshiva led by the Chief Rabbi, the Chief Rabbi, and then in Ponivez), and when he was less than 20 years old He has already received a ordination from the owner of Aruch HaShulchan, Rabbi Yechiel Michal Halevi Epstein. When he was 19 years old, he married Alta Bat Sheva, the daughter of the Adrat (Rabbi Eliyahu David Rabinovitch Teumim, rabbi of Ponibizh). Rabbi Kook had a firstborn daughter - Frida Hanna. After the death of his wife, Rabbi Kook married his wife's cousin, From this marriage Rabbi Zvi Yehuda and a daughter named Batia Miriam were born abroad, and in Israel his little daughter Esther Yael was born.
In 1888 he was appointed rabbi of the town of Zeimel in Lithuania. There he studied Kabbalah as a student-friend with one of the greatest Kabbalists of his generation, Rabbi Shlomo Elyashiv, author of the Kabbalah book "Leshem Shabo Vahalma". During this period, his first wife died, and Rabbi Kook was left with the one and a half year old Frida Hana, who was born in 1885. After about a year in which he was engaged in meditation and Kabbalah, he married Raiza Rivka, the cousin of his first wife, and the daughter of Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Rabinowitz Twins (twin brother of the Adrat), from whom Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook was born on the 4th of Nisan 1891 (1891). . After that, in 1895, he was elected rabbi of Boysk, where he began to publish his thoughts in the Hafels newspaper. His second daughter Batia-Miriam was born there in 1899 (1899), who later married Rabbi Shalom Natan Ra'anan.
When he was 39 years old, the rabbi received an appeal from the people of Jaffa, and in 1904 he immigrated to Israel and served as rabbi of Jaffa. During this time, the rabbi continued to write his writings, including 'Urot', 'Orot HaKodesh', 'Olet Raya' and more. The rabbi advocated the sanctification of the material and supported agricultural work as well as managed institutions: he founded a yeshiva in Jaffa and was a teacher. Rabbi HaTala served as rabbi of the moshavot, and when he was 48 years old, in 1913, he headed a delegation of rabbis for the 'Moshavot expedition' which lasted about a month and tried to strengthen the relationship between the workers and between the Torah and the mitzvot. The rabbi also went abroad for a conference of the Israel' in Switzerland in order to bring the rest of the people of Israel closer to the settlement, to the residents of the Land of Israel and its flourishing, and during this period she was also intended to be the rabbi of London, engaged in the good of the people of Israel and influenced the British policy towards the Land of Israel.
In 1914, he went to the world conference of the Agudath Israel in Switzerland due to his desire to bring them closer to Zionism, and after a month he was stuck there in St. Glen due to the outbreak of the First World War. There he engaged in public activity to help the settlement in Israel. In the year 1916 (1916) the community of religious holders in London offered him to be a rabbi, and he agreed on the condition that he return to Jaffa at the first opportunity he could. While in London he established several Yeshivas. Influenced the British government not to extradite to Russia Russian Jews who had emigrated from it, and waged a struggle with Englishmen of the religion of Moses, who argued against the Zionist movement, and tried to influence the British government not to give the Balfour Declaration. Following Rabbi Kook's expression of opinion in the synagogues, many memos were sent to the ruling circles from the Jewish communities that were planned, that the religion of Israel is connected with Israeli nationalism and the Land of Israel, which influenced the publication of the statement.
After a period of about three years in London after the end of the war, the Rabbi returned to the Land of Israel and after the heads of the institutions and yeshivas and the majority of the rabbis of Jerusalem signed a letter of appointment, he was appointed Rabbi of Jerusalem in 1919 and filled a position that had been abandoned for several years. Later he founded the institution of the Chief Rabbinate, which he saw as the first step in the establishment of the Sanhedrin, and became the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel in 1921. He saw the Chief Rabbinate as worldwide spiritual leadership and not as a bureaucratic mechanism.
After three years, the rabbi returned to the Land of Israel and mainly engaged in writing a 'clear law' about the Shas and activities for the people of Israel. In 1919, the rabbi intended to be appointed rabbi of Jerusalem, and later established the chief rabbinate of Israel, which he saw as a preparation for the establishment of the Sanhedrin, And so he became the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the Land of Israel in 1921, and he is 56 years old. The rabbi founded the Merkaz Rabbi Yeshiva - the Global Yeshiva Meksherit Holomalit and also founded the Halacha Berura institute. In 1924, the rabbi wrote a letter for gathering of the Bnei Akiva, and this is how he opened his letter: "My dear 'Bnei Akiva.' They are increasingly opening up to Israel and its country...".
At the end of his days, the rabbi struggled with a serious illness, and on the third of Elul 1935 (1935) he died, he was 70 years old, and was buried on the Mount of Olives.
A variety of books of books by Rabbi Kook are included. To purchase, go to the store geulabook>>>