Rabbi Simcha HaCohen Kook, chief rabbi of Rehovot, rabbi of the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City, and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Maor HaTalmud, passed away Tuesday at the age of 92.
Rabbi Kook was the great nephew of Avraham Yitzchak Kook, who served as Chief Rabbi of pre-state Israel until his passing in 1935.
In his youth, Rabbi Kook studied at the Kfar Haroeh Bnei Akiva and at the Hebron Yeshiva in Jerusalem. During the War of Independence, he served on the Jerusalem front as a squad commander.
In the mid-1960s, with the encouragement of Rabbi Moshe-Zvi Neria, he opened a high school yeshiva in Netanya, which belongs to the Bnei Akiva network.
Following the passing of his father, Tiberaias Chief Rabbi Rafael HaCohen Kook, in 1971, he ran for the post of Chief Rabbi of Tiberias. In December 1971 his brother, Rabbi Shlomo Kook, the Chief Rabbi of Rehovot, was killed in a car accident along with his wife and two sons.
Following the tragedy, Rabbi Kook was called upon to take his brother's place as the Chief Rabbi of Rehovot.
Rabbi Kook was a member of the Chief Rabbinical Council of Israel for 25 years, until 2008. In the 1990s he briefly worked at Arutz Sheva radio.