Students of the saintly Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook throughout Israel and the world are marking the 73rd anniversary of his death.



The revered and holy rabbi passed away on the 3rd day of Elul, 1935, at the age of 70.  He was Chief Rabbi of the Holy Land at the time, founder of Yeshivat Merkaz HaRav, and is considered the spiritual father of the religious-Zionist movement.



The occasion is being marked at the Rav Kook museum/educational center in Beit HaRav [Rabbi Kook's house], on Rabbi Kook St. in downtown Jerusalem, where the rabbi lived for many years.  At 5:30 PM, a symposium will be held there, with the participation of leading students of Rabbi Kook's teachings, including Rabbis Chaim Druckman and Dov Lior, as well as the current head of the Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva, Rabbi Yaakov Shapira.

Also in honor of the day, special lectures were given at the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva on Wednesday morning, by Rabbi Shapira, lecturer Rabbi Avinoam Zommer, and Rav Yehuda Amichai of the Torah and Land Institute.

Breslov and Rav Kook

Next Wednesday evening, Beit HaRav will sponsor another symposium on the topic of Modern-Day Teshuvah [Repentance].  Speakers such as Rabbi Yaakov Filber, Michi Yosefi, and others will address the relationship between the philosophies of Rabbi Kook and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.  The Breslov philosophy has attracted many returnees to Judaism in recent years, including among religious-Zionist youth.

A bigoraphical video on Rabbi Kook can be seen here, and Machon Meir classes on his teachings can be heard here.

For more information on Rav Kook and his writings, click here.



Also in honor of the 73rd anniversary of Rabbi Kook's death, the Rosh Yehudi (Jewish Mindset) education organization has announced the publication for the first time of one of Rabbi Kook's many works in modern-day Hebrew.  Though all his works were written in Hebrew, the concepts and language are often difficult for the modern reader, especially one who is not well-versed in the depth of Jewish thought.



The work that has thus been "translated" is Musar Avicha, or Your Father's Teaching.  Rabbi Kook wrote it while he was still rabbi of the southern Latvian city Boisk (Bauska).  The book was first published only after his death, in 1946, and again in 1971. Unlike some of Rabbi Kook's other works, no commentary has ever been published on Musar Avicha, though his son, the late Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, gave regular weekly classes based on it.



The work was rendered into modern Hebrew by Rabbi Chen Chalamish [both words are pronounced with the guttural h], a lecturer in both Yeshivat Beit Orot in Jerusalem and Rosh Yehudi in Tel Aviv.  Rabbi Chalamish says he "had the secular reader in mind" as he worked.



Rosh Yehudi is a learning center for Judaism, spirituality and self-awareness in the spirit of religious Zionism.  Dozens of people study there every evening, and many of its students have been inspired to lead fully observant Jewish lives.