הרב אברהם יצחק הכהן קוק

Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook (16 Elul 5625/1865–3 Elul 5695/1935), known as HaRav Kook and by the roshei teivot HaRa’ayah, was the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael and the founder of Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav. He was born in Griva, in the Courland region of the Russian Empire, eldest of the eight children of Rav Shlomo Zalman HaKohen Kook, a talmid of Volozhin, and Zlata Perl, whose family was close to Chabad. He learned in Lutzin under Rav Eliezer Don Yechia, and before the age of twenty received semichah from Rav Yechiel Michel Epstein, the Aruch HaShulchan. In 5646/1886 he married Batsheva, daughter of the Aderet, Rav Eliyahu David Rabinowitz-Teomim, and learned in Volozhin under the Netziv, whom he held as his central rebbi.

In 5648/1888 he became rav of Zaumel, where he learned kabbalah with Rav Shlomo Elyashiv, author of the Leshem Shevo V’Achlamah, published Chavash Pe’er on the mitzvah of tefillin, and edited the Torah journal Ittur Sofrim. After his wife’s passing he married Raiza Rivka, daughter of the Aderet’s twin brother; their son was Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook. From 5655/1895 he served as rav of Boisk, writing in those years much of Ein Ayah, on the aggadot of Berachot and Shabbat, and Mussar Avicha.

He authored dozens of volumes, many of them compiled into seforim by disciples posthumously. His writings are considered hard to understand at first glance, and require deeper immersion into the concepts that he brings. One of his main works, The Ein Ayah (Ayn Aya), is a multi-volume philosophical and halachic commentary on the Aggadah (non-legal, narrative, and legendary sections) of the Talmud. For many, he was the founder of the religious zionist movement, which is among the mainstream orthodox populations in Israel and worldwide today.

In 5664/1904 he went up to Eretz Yisrael as rav of Yaffo and the moshavot — the most fruitful period of his writing, from which came the material of Orot, Orot HaKodesh, and Olat Re’iyah. He grounded the heter mechirah for shemittah in his sefer Shabbat HaAretz, and in the winter of 5674/1913 led a delegation of rabbanim, among them Rav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, through the new settlements of the Shomron and the Galil to strengthen Shabbat, Torah education, and the giving of terumot and maasrot. Caught in Europe at the outbreak of the First World War, he waited out the war years in Switzerland and then in London, as rav of the Machzike Hadath kehillah in Spitalfields from 5676/1916.

Returning in 5679/1919, he became Ashkenazi rav of Yerushalayim, established the Chief Rabbinate, and in 5681/1921 was appointed the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael. In 5684/1924 he founded Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav in Yerushalayim — the “Central Universal Yeshiva” — and traveled to America with Rav Avraham Dov Kahana Shapiro of Kovno and Rav Moshe Mordechai Epstein of Slabodka to raise support for Torah institutions. He also founded the Halachah Berurah project, setting the psak of halachah beside the sugyot of the Shas from which it flows. He was niftar in Yerushalayim on 3 Elul 5695/1935, and some twenty thousand accompanied him at his levayah.