Knesset passes Rav Kook Day law on preliminary vote

Today (Wednesday), the Knesset voted to pass a bill commemorating the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook, on a preliminary vote of 46-10. It will now be reviewed the Knesset Education, Culture, and Sports committee.

In addition to serving in his official position as religious leader and decider, Rav Kook is considered one of the outstanding and original thinkers of the religious Zionist world, even though he himself tried to remain independent and ecumenical.

A library's worth of scholarship has been produced on the life and thought of Rav Kook, with often furious and clashing interpretations of his beliefs and ideas and what he thought of Zionism, given its reverence for tradition but rejection of religious observance.

Haredi Rabbis and communities also have a very ambivalent attitude to Rav Kook, as his Zionist connections and advocacy make him very suspect in the eyes of a community whose support for Zionism at an ideological level remains weak to nonexistent at best.

The law states that schools across the country should devote time to learning and commemorating Rav Kook on the designated day, and that scholarships be established to study his life and thought.