Auction 48

Letter handwritten and signed by the Riya Kook—Tevet 1929/30

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Letter on official letterhead, handwritten and signed by Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, from the 29th of Tevet. Size: 14x21cm. Folding creases, tear on the right side with no damage to text, overall good condition.

Rav Kook (1865-1935) was the son of Rabbi Shlomo Zalman and a student of the Volozhin yeshiva (where he became known as the Ilui of Ponevezh). The Natziv wrote of him: “for many years Volozhin has not seen a student like this.” He was the son-in-law of Rabbi Eliyahu David Teumim, the Aderet of Ponevezh. At first he refused to serve in the rabbinate but the Chafetz Haim convinced him to take it on, and he served in Yafo and many cities outside Israel before and after World War I.

At the end of his life he was appointed rabbi of Jerusalem, where he established the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva, and later became Chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Israel. He wrote many works on the Torah, shut, and works of Jewish thought.