67th Yahrtzeit Of Rabbi Kook  

August 12, 2002
Arutz-7

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…"