The Purim Gabbai


In 1885, the year that the future Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook studied in the famed yeshiva of Volozhin, he was unanimously chosen to lead the Purim revelry as Purim gabbai. The most important students in the yeshiva lit the streetlights along the road from Avraham Yitzchak's lodgings to the yeshiva. This created a festive atmosphere, as the new gabbai was led to the yeshiva and to the home of the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Naftali Tvi Yehuda Berlin, known as the Netziv.


Efraim Teitelbaum, Rabbi Kook's then-roommate, related that when the the young Avraham Yitzchak reached the home of the Netziv, he recited the usual verses poking fun at the administration and at events that had occurred in the yeshiva. However, instead of composing his doggerel in the vernacular Yiddish, he did so in Hebrew and Aramaic.


One of his quips was, "Berlin will sink and Berlin will rise." That is, the Haskalah of Berlin (the Enlightenment mo

Instead of composing his doggerel in the vernacular Yiddish, he did so in Hebrew and Aramaic.

vement that advocated integrating into European society) will sink, while the Torah of the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Berlin, will rise.


Several students in the yeshiva had studied the Haskalah literature and had been enticed by it. When they expressed their delight and amazement at the Avraham Yitzchak's mastery of Hebrew and Aramaic, the Netziv turned to them and remarked, "Not only does he excel in Torah and yirat shamayaim (fear of heaven), but even in this subject you do not reach his ankles."


Measure for Measure


In delivering his Purim compositions, Avraham Yitzchak imitated the Netziv's manner of speech and enunciation. But he was repaid in kind many years later by the great-grandson of the Netziv, Rabbi Yitzchak Charif, who was chosen to be the Purim rav in Rabbi Kook's own yeshiva, Mercaz HaRav.


Rabbi Yitzchak, having internalized every word that he had heard Rabbi Kook speak, proceeded to make a Purim speech in precise imitation of the rabbi's style and cadence. In his speech, he analyzed his position of Purim rav. Did it encompass only the rabbinate of Jerusalem, or did his nomination entitle him to officiate as the chief rabbi of all of EretzYisrael?


The scholarship and mental agility that he brought to his speech amazed all those present. Rabbi Kook was also impressed by Rabbi Yitzchak's address. He admitted that he had been unaware of the rabbi's greatness in Torah.


"Now I am getting my due," Rabbi Kook noted. "The great-grandson is repaying me here in Jerusalem for that which I said to his great-grandfather in Volozhin."


[Based on Celebration of the Soul by Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neriyah, translated by Rabbi Pesach Jaffe, pp. 123-124]