A birthday tribute to Rav Kook

This fifth and final tribute to Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook, zt"l, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth, on the 16th of Ellul, was penned by my dear neighbor and friend, Rabbi Aryeh Ginzberg of the Chofetz Chaim Beis Medrash of Cedarhurst, a longtime voice and activist in Agudas Yisrael.

By Rabbi Aryeh Ginzberg

Despite spending all of my youth being associated with a traditional yeshiva and where I can't recall ever having been exposed to any of the teachings or written works of Rav Kook, zt"l, and probably not even hearing his name mentioned in any Torah discussion, I have grown to become an ardent admirer and, if I would be so bold … even a talmid of this great and saintly gadol, my spiritual giant.

My first exposure to any of the teachings of Rav Kook was when I was about 20 years of age. it was when I was a Shabbos guest at the home of the great Talmudic sage and gaon, Rav Leizer Plachinsky, zt"l, in Jerusalem.

Rav Leizer [as he was affectionately known in the yeshiva world] was the youngest son in law of the tzaddik of Yerushalayim, Rav Aryeh Levine, zt"l, a brother-in-law of the posek Hador Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashav, zt"l. Sitting by his table and enjoying the shalosh seudos and listening to his wonderful and inspiring divrei Torah all mixed with his youthful memories of his days in Jerusalem during the 1920s and 1930s, memories of the times that he witnessed firsthand the true and really respectful relationship between Rav Kook and Rav Sonnenfeld of the old yishuv.

The different opinions on the variant approaches in dealing with the majority Zionist secular community, over time, became bitter and particularly painful as their followers often crossed the line by attacking the other side. However, he shared with me a story that I found particularly painful pertaining to his saintly father in law.