Autograph Letter Signed, offering condolences to S.Ch. Kook upon the passing of his brother Chief Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kook

SOLOVEITCHIK, JOSEPH DOV HALEVI

Roxbury, Mass

7 Ellul, 1935

In this emoton-laden letter Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik of Boston (1903-1993), recalls his recent meeting with the recently deceased Chief Rabbi Kook. In 1935, Soloveitchik journeyed to Eretz Israel in a bid to serve as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv. This was the only time “the Rav” (as he is referred to affectionately) visited the Holy Land. (Eventually, Rabbi Soloveitchik was not selected as Rabbi of Tel-Aviv and R. Moses Avigdor Amiel of Antwerp was appointed.) On that visit, R. Joseph Dov had occasion to meet the septuagenarian Rabbi Kook. The latter honored the young Rabbi of Boston by inviting him to deliver Talmudic discourses in his Yeshivath Merkaz Harav, Jerusalem. Upon the death of his father, R. Moses Soloveitchik in 1941, R. Joseph Dov was appointed a Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University, New York, in which capacity he served for the next forty years, and during which time he ordained thousands of rabbinical students. He also served as the halachic authority of the Rabbinical Council of America and as leader of the Religious Zionist movement. In a sense, Soloveitchik may be considered the founder of Modern Orthodoxy in America. See EJ, Vol. XV, cols. 132-133. Rabbi Soloveitchik writes: “”Believe me, my eyes tear over, my heart is torn to shreds, my soul is depressed and my hand shakes, powerless to continue this letter. The image of our Rabbi [Kook], which I just recently came to know, stands before me luminous, his visage glorious. How is it possible to conceive that our Rabbi has departed from our midst?” See also, previous Lot