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The Challenge of Eretz Israel Aaron Abraham Kabak (1880-1944) The Nazir of Jerusalem (1890-1972) Aaron Abraham Kabak It was a burning night in Palestine in 1930. The date was close to that of the beginning of the Shoa (Holocaust), but the event had no connection with anything that was taking place outside. It was in the innermost depths of his soul that everything happened in one single night for Aaron Abraham Kabak. Born near Vilna in 1880, he was educated in Turkey, Germany, France, and Switzerland, and finally settled in Jerusalem in 1921. Very rapidly, this teacher in the Rehavia High School became one of the most celebrated novelists of the new school of Hebrew literature. His work illustrated its essential characteristics: secularism, socialism, free thought, faith in man and the soil, and in the Jewish homeland which was to be built on the foundations of a universal and profane culture. The religion of his forefathers was no more than a childhood memory, thrust into the back of his mind and soon forgotten. What happened during that burning Jerusalem night? An inner tempest , concerning which Kabak remained silent until his death in 1944. He continued his literary work, making it broader and deeper, but from that night onwards he again took up the tallith, the tefillin, the prayerbook, frequentation of the synagogue and the study of the Bible, the Talmud, and the Masters of the sacred Kingdom which now became the dwelling-place of this secularized Zionist Jew whom a secret dialogue with God had brought back to the Torah, the mitzvot, and the yoke of religious observances accepted in light and joy. 23 The Nazir of Jerusalem It was a burning night in St. Gallen, Switzerland in 1915. The incident happened during the First World War, but the event had no connection with anything that was taking place outside. It was in the innermost depths of his soul that everything happened in one single night for David Cohen. Born in Russia in 1890, he ran away from his yeshiva, the Talmudic academy, in order to savor universal philosophy. He imbibed Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, and his thirst was still not quenched. At a loss, he sought some intellectual or spiritual anchorage and traveled all over Europe. In Switzerland, he was advised to go and consult Rav Kook. Rav Kook was the Chief Rabbi of Jaffa (after the war, he was to become the Chief Rabbi of Palestine), but the war was holding him in Switzerland. David Cohen was put up in Rav Kook's residence in St. Gallen. Chance had assigned him a room adjacent to that of Rav Kook whom he was to see the next day. But before the sun rose, David Cohen heard Rav Kook saying-or rather chanting-aloud through the partition the traditional Jewish morning prayers. He awakened the cockerel, the sun, mankind and the cosmos, so intense , fervent, and powerful was his voice. He also awakened David Cohen. When a few hours later Cohen presented himself before Rav Kook, he already knew he had found his Master. David Cohen did, in fact, become a disciple of Rav Kook. The two men never again left one another and they returned to the Land of Israel at the end of the war. David Cohen settled in Jerusalem and made a vow never again to leave the holy city. He also made a Nazaritic vow: total vegetarianism , hair untouched by scissors, long periods of silence, and asceticism. 24 The Challenge of Eretz Israel 25 After Rav Kook's death in 1935, David Cohen became universally known as "Rav Hanazir," one of the outstanding figures of Jerusalem religious life. The reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 enraptured him and confirmed him in his messianic expectations. ...

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