Tzipiyah.com

While the Third of Ellul is, for many, just the third day of a special month of Teshuva - While Gimmel Ellul is, for many sfardim, simply the second day on which to wake up for Slichot - in the past 73 years, Gimmel Ellul has become, in the Religious Zionist movement, a very special day. This is the day of the Yarzheit, or Hilloula, of Rav Avraham Hakohen Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel and the spiritual leader of the Religious Zionist movement. As has become the custom, we, at Tzipiyah.com, want to celebrate this Gimmel Ellul by celebrating Rav Kook’s life and learning from his teachings. I therefore want to share a video which I got the permission to upload on YouTube - a video I feel every single Jew should be watching on Gimmel Ellul. I am also including quotes from various sources on the personality of Rav Kook in order to better grasp how incredible this Tzadik was. Finally, I will conclude with a few quotes from Rav Kook himself so that we may also be inspired by his wisdom.

How better to describe to life of this spectacular figure than with the words inscribed on his grave:

He rose to Israel (made aliyah) on the 28th of Iyar (later to be Yom Yerushalaim).
He rose to Jerusalem on the 3rd of Ellul.
He rose to the heavenly skies on the 3rd of Ellul.

His whole life, as described on his grave, was a constant aliyah - constantly reaching to higher spheres of holiness.

The video

If you are not on Tzipiyah.com, click here to see the movie.

About Rav Kook

There is so much to say about this incredible person, but here are a just few quotes from some biographies. I highly suggest that all should read this book when they have a chance.

There is a well-known story about R. Kook which captures much of what made him so unique. When R. Kook moved to Israel, he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Yaffo; this job included serving as the rabbi of the secular Zionists in the outlying agricultural settlements. One summer, Rav Kook and his colleagues went on a tour of these settlements in an attempt to encourage the pioneers to observe more mitzvot, especially the laws pertaining to agriculture and produce. Their campaign was met with minimum of success. One night, toward the end of the trip, Rabbi Y. M. Charlop, who was sharing a room with R. Kook, awoke to the sight of his teacher restlessly pacing about their small room. As he looked closer, he noticed that R. Kook’s face was flushed with passion and excitement. Rav Kook noticed him and slowly approached his disciple, placing his ice cold hands on R. Charlop. “What is wrong, master?” R. Charlop asked. R. Kook ” responded, “I am consumed with a burning love of God.”
(…)
R. Kook did not write in normal expository prose. His writing flowed from inspiration; he attempted to capture his powerful experiences in words. His hand was driven to write by the overwhelming emotions bursting forth from him. Once he started writing, he didn’t stop. Sometimes he didn’t even notice that he had reached the end of the page and kept writing straight onto the table. He even preferred pencil over pen, because fountain pens constantly had to be re-dipped in ink, interrupting his passionate writing. Yet, despite the spontaneity of his expression, we never find thoughts crossed out or erased in his manuscripts. Not only did his thoughts flow, they flowed correctly the first time. (from Here)

Rabbi Kook reiterated over and over again that each and every Jew retains a holy spark within the soul and that the Jewish people as a whole, in beginning to revive their national aspirations and rebuilding the Land, were igniting this spark – which most assuredly would bring about the full and complete redemption.
(…)
The teachings of Rabbi Kook (and his son) changed the face of Orthodox Judaism in the pre-state years and afterwards. He synthesized Torah study and adherence to its Mitzvot with the revival of Jewish nationalism as no other person was able to do. He explained to the religious and non-religious that the ‘galut’ is not permanent, and that the time had indeed come for the foretold beginning of redemption. The influence of Rabbi Kook is boundless. He was a visionary and realist; a man who stood alone and was the spiritual leader of thousands. At a time of travail and sorrow he was able to see beyond the present moment to an era of unity and peace of the people of Israelin Eretz Yisrael. (From Here)

He was a thorough master of the entire Halachic, Midrashic, philosophic, ethical, and Kabbalistic literature.

But more important, he brought to bear the entire tradition upon the contemporary scene. He saw the return to Eretz Yisrael as not merely a political phenomenon to save Jews from persecution, but an event of extraordinary historical and theological significance. Rabbi Hutner once said that Rav Kook peered down on our world from great heights and hence his perspective was unique. Above all, Rav Kook pulsated with a sense of the Divine. And, he sought to reach those who had strayed.
(…)
He refused to reject Jews as long as they identified themselves as Jews. In a noteworthy exchange with his great friend, admirer, and opponent, Rabbi Yaakov David Willowski, Rav Kook explained the two components of a Jew: his essential nature - the pintele yid, and the path he had chosen in exercising free will. Even if the second element were weak, as long as the first was not repudiated, there was still hope. He called for and envisioned a spiritual renaissance where “the ancient would be renewed and the new would be sanctified.” His vision of repentance disdained fear and apprehension and looked forward to “the poet of Teshuva, who would be the poet of life, the poet of renewal and the poet of the national soul waiting to be redeemed.”
Perhaps he was that poet. (From Here)

Some of his writings

” Only through their longing for the Land of Israel, will exilic Judaism receive its inherent qualities and essential characteristics. Yearning for Salvation, is the force that preserves Exilic Judaism, whereas the Judaism of the Land of Israel, is the very Salvation itself” Orot 1,1

“-The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.
They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.
They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom. ”
Arpilei Tohar p. 39

“The holy association between Israeland its Holy Landis not comparable to a natural affiliation through which all other nations and peoples are tied to their lands. The natural affiliation develops over a long period of time and through the occurrence of many incidents and through a great many people who come to live permanently in a specific land and thus begins the development of the historical affiliation by way of habit, causing for the generations to come, a spiritual association between the nation and the land. Such an idea does not exist within the Divine realm emanating from the Holy source which ties the people of Israelto the holiness of the beautiful land whose sanctified seal became apparent when we were but ‘a few men.’ ” Olat Ha’Rayah

“Eretz Israelis not an external object superimposed upon the consciousness of the nation. Nor can it simply be defined as an intermediary whose purpose is to unify the people and thus provide for the strengthening of their physical and spiritual requirements. Eretz Israelis an independent entity, intrinsically connected to and part of those unique qualities which preserve and guarantee the very existence of our nation. This intimate bond denies any attempt at rational or intellectual explanation of the holiness invested in the land. It can only be understood by attempting to comprehend the very ‘spirit of God’ which rests upon the entire nation…” Orot 1,1

One of his most foundational teachings

“There is a person who sings the song of his soul. He finds everything, his complete spiritual satisfaction, within his soul.

There is a person who sings the song of the nation. He steps forward from his private soul, which he finds narrow and uncivilized. He yearns for the heights. He clings with a sensitive love to the entirety of the Jewish nation and sings its song. He shares in its pains, is joyful in its hopes, speaks with exalted and pure thoughts regarding its past and its future, investigates its inner spiritual nature with love and a wise heart.

There is a person whose soul is so broad that it expands beyond the border of Israel. It sings the song of humanity. This soul constantly grows broader with the exalted totality of humanity and its glorious image. He yearns for humanity’s general enlightenment. He looks forward to its supernal perfection. From this source of life, he draws all of his thoughts and insights, his ideals and visions.

And there is a person who rises even higher until he unites with all existence, with all creatures, and with all worlds. And with all of them, he sings. This is the person who, engaged in the Chapter of Song every day, is assured that he is a child of the World-to-Come.

And there is a person who rises with all these songs together in one ensemble so that they all give forth their voices, they all sing their songs sweetly, each supplies its fellow with fullness and life: the voice of happiness and joy, the voice of rejoicing and tunefulness, the voice of merriment and the voice of holiness.

The song of the soul, the song of the nation, the song of humanity, the song of the world–they all mix together with this person at every moment and at all times.

And this simplicity in its fullness rises to become a song of holiness, the song of God, the song that is simple, doubled, tripled, quadrupled, the song of songs of Solomon–of the king who is characterized by completeness and peace.”
Rav Kook, Orot Hakodesh II, p. 444, Translated here