By Amichai Lau-Lavie September 6, 2016

Tuesday 9/6/16

Elul 3 5776

Dear Rabbi Kook,

On this day in 1935 your soul departed. Like other saintly sages and memorable teachers whose births and deaths become part of our calendar, this date remains one of gratitude and honor for the rich and complex legacy you left behind.

Like other visionary leaders, your legacy has been claimed by very different heirs and followers, celebrating and creating wildly diverse realities in the world. You are credited as one of the founding father of the Religious Zionist movement, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel before it became a state, and a great advocate for combining traditional Jewish loyalties with modern secular realities, a man of peace. Also, a vegetarian.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

My pious cousins who live in West Bank settlements have your portrait on their walls, venerating your love of the land of Israel. But so do some of my secular friends all over the world who are pro palestinian activists, quoting your persistent call for peace among all people, at all price. You were a mystic, a poet, jurist and author, traveling all over the world to promote the Jewish way of spirit, tolerance, devotion to our highest humanistic values. Some legacies are too nuanced for just one voice. We are struggling today to live up to all these expectations.

On this third day of our Elul journey into better and more conscious living, I thank you for the faith in our future and for teaching me to have the courage to hold on to my convictions, finding find fusions between what was and what one day be. Years ago you gave me the mission for my life’s work: “Let the ancient be renewed and the new become sacred.” I hope I am living up to your intentions, please forgive me if I don’t. I hope your understand.

In recent years one of your poems, first printed in your book Orot Hakodesh, has become an anthem of hope for so many of us, esp in Israel, so seeking hope. This coming Yom Kippur I hope to sing it with my congregation, rising to the challenge of these trying times of so much needless strife:

בן אדם עלה למעלה עלה
כי כוח עז לך יש לך כנפי רוח
כנפי נשרים אבירים
אל תכחש בם פן יכחשו לך
דרוש אותם
ויימצאו לך מיד

Human being, Rise up. Rise up, for you have tremendous strength.

You have wings of the spirit, wings of noble eagles. Do not deny them, or they will deny you. Seek them, and instantly they will manifest.

Today we honor those, like you, who gave us words and wings which with to rise above all fears and fences.

Gratitude and Love,

Amichai

PREPENT: Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s annual journey to the new year, with 40 ways in 40 days to reflect, refocus, recharge and restart life. This year features daily love letters inspired by Lab/Shul’s theme for the High Holy Days, “וְאָהַבְתָּ re:love.”

Subscribe to Lab/Shul’s mailing list to receive this free daily blog in your inbox by checking “Prepent” as a special interest, share them on Facebook or Twitter, or read it online at the Forward.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount